STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2950

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2388

       H.D. 3

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 2388, H.D. 3, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to facilitate, in an expeditious and efficient manner, the development or expansion of in-state correctional facilities.  Specifically, this measure:

 

     (1)  Clarifies the Governor's authority to negotiate for the construction of a correctional facility to include the authority to negotiate for construction of a jail, such as that needed on Maui, and aligns environmental impact statement and assessment requirements for such a jail with generally applicable requirements;

 

     (2)  Requires the Governor to conduct a feasibility study that includes restructuring the Oahu Community Correctional Center with a smaller footprint on the land that it currently occupies and redeveloping the remainder of the site;

 

     (3)  Specifies the design criteria for a newly built Oahu Community Correctional Center; and

 

     (4)  Appropriates funds for reconstruction of the Oahu Community Correctional Center and the relocation of the Maui Community Correctional Center.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, Building Industry Association Hawaii, and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from The CHOW Project, Hawaii Friends of Reformative Justice, Community Alliance on Prisons, and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that the existing Oahu Community Correctional Center facility is deteriorating, outmoded, and inefficient.  The facility is severely overcrowded and not sufficient for the correctional needs of the State.  Additionally, the facility's close proximity to residential neighborhoods, commercial enterprises, and industrial areas makes the location better suited for other uses.  Relocating the facility to Halawa or restructuring the facility with a smaller footprint within its existing location would provide the State with a facility that is better suited to its correctional needs and allow the existing location of Oahu Community Correctional Center to be redeveloped.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that the appropriation is for the purchasing, constructing, developing, leasing, or otherwise providing for jail facilities, not limited to a turn-key basis and not restricted to the existing Halawa Correctional Facility parcel; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Water, Land, and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2388, H.D. 3, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2388, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs and Water, Land, and Agriculture,

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair