Bill Text: HI HB2015 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To The University Of Hawaii.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 17-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2022-03-11 - Referred to HRE, JDC/WAM. [HB2015 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HB2015-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2015 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to the university of hawaii.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the overrepresentation of Native Hawaiian, Pacific islander, and communities of color across Hawaii's criminal legal system reflects multiple institutions and systems that perpetuate inequities and suffering, from initial police contact to the intergenerational impact of incarceration and punishment. To address this, a comprehensive study by the office of Hawaiian affairs and two state-mandated task force reports have called for a new approach to justice, based on rehabilitative rather than punitive approaches, in alignment with Hawaii's core values. The legislature established the House Concurrent Resolution 85 task force on prison reform; Criminal Justice Research Institute; and Hawaii correctional system oversight commission, which offers research, data, recommendations, best practices, and oversight to inform future criminal justice reform. Hookaulike is an attempt at one such approach. It seeks to engage a broad consortia of stakeholders to share knowledge, align institutions, augment justice-related training and education programs, and engage the community in developing and piloting new justice pathways, generating cutting-edge scholarship, and forging durable bonds of service and support within the community to foster and further inclusive justice. The institute will provide a new resource to support critical next steps and implementation. The work to explore alternative models to our criminal justice institutions naturally falls outside of the mandates of the institutions themselves, making this resource especially needed.
The legislature further finds that the State's punitive criminal justice system disproportionately arrests and imprisons Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawaii, who continue to suffer from their loss of sovereignty and land, and from structural racism. Native Hawaiians, along with Pacific Islanders and other people of color, experience economic, education, and health disparities; as they also are strikingly overrepresented in the current system, from policing and arrests to sentencing and parole. This is a problem of statewide concern and has yet to be addressed by the State.
The legislature also finds that the structural racism that has existed in Hawaii for centuries is embedded in the current criminal legal system which, studies have shown, has a devastating impact on Native Hawaiians at every stage of the criminal process. From first contact with Europeans in 1778, through the armed overthrow of the independent Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and Hawaii's subsequent incorporation by the United States, Native Hawaiians have struggled to survive. The loss of sovereignty has framed successive waves of missionaries, settlers, laborers, businesses, and military personnel, whose appropriation of power and land further imperiled Native Hawaiian language, practices, and identity, subjugating and trivializing indigenous culture. Native Hawaiians along with other Pacific Islanders and people of color still struggle against systemic racism, poverty, houselessness, and poor health, all exacerbated by Hawaii's high cost of living. No symptom of indigenous suffering better illustrates the aftermath of colonization than Hawaii's current criminal justice system, which devastates and traumatizes poor communities. Recent studies by the National Prison Policy Institute describe ingrained disparities for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Although together they comprise only twenty per cent of the adult population, they constitute nearly forty per cent of the State's prison population. Native Hawaiians receive comparatively longer prison sentences; they are more likely to be incarcerated if convicted; they suffer longer detention while awaiting trial; and they are overrepresented in the prison population flown to out-of-state private prison in Arizona. After release, they also lack support services to secure housing and employment, which results in their return to prison and the ongoing cycle of incarceration. For Pacific Islanders, especially re1ative newcomers from Compacts of Free Association nations in Micronesia, the problems are compounded by the absence of extended families in Hawaii and routine poverty upon their arrival. That many Micronesian families have emigrated to Hawaii because of American strategic exploitations of their home islands makes their plight even more appalling. Meanwhile, the State is poised to compound these problems with its current plan to build a new $525,000,000 jai1. Projected to house one thousand prisoners, this plan ignores numerous expert studies recommending innovative correctional approaches and networked community-based hubs that replace punishment with rehabilitation.
The legislature believes that the State must create an inclusive and fair criminal legal system devoted to restoration and healing, particularly addressing the disparate challenges facing Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islander communities, and people of color in the criminal legal system. These ongoing issues include intergenerational poverty and trauma, structural and systemic racism, and over-policing, with consequent disparate levels of incarceration. Addressing these issues of state-wide concern must rely on the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the research, community engagement, and teaching capacities of the William S. Richardson School of Law, the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the University of Hawaii community design center.
The legislature also finds that establishment of an institute for restoration and healing within the criminal legal system at the William S. Richardson School of Law is a matter of statewide concern.
The purpose of this Act is to establish an institute to be located within the William S. Richardson School of Law to be known as the Hookaulike: a criminal legal system institute for restoration and healing.
SECTION 2. Chapter 304A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part IV, subpart D, to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§304A- Hookaulike:
a criminal legal system institute for restoration and healing; established.
(a) There is established at the William S.
Richardson School of Law the hookaulike: a criminal legal system institute for restoration
and healing, to be under the direction of a director who shall be appointed by
the dean of the school of law, with the approval of the board of regents.
(b) Subject to the availability of funds, faculty,
and facilities, the institute shall assist vulnerable communities to help in the
design and advocacy of inclusive and fair criminal legal systems aimed at
restoration and healing, particularly the disparate challenges facing Native Hawaiians,
Pacific Islander communities, and people of color in the criminal legal system.
(c) The institute may:
(1) Conduct and
promote research, conferences, and studies to improve legal systems, laws,
policies, methods, rules, procedures, and forms relating to federal, state and
local government;
(2) Report on and
make recommendations regarding goals, guidelines, innovations, and evaluation
of federal, state, and local government initiatives; and
(3) Create a
conduit for regular reporting and consultation with state and private agencies
charged with evaluation and policy regarding policing, prosecution, and
corrections.
(d) As used in this section:
"Director" means the director
of the hookaulike: a criminal legal system institute for restoration
and healing, at the William S. Richardson School of Law.
"Institute" means the hookaulike:
a criminal legal system institute for restoration
and healing, at the William S. Richardson School of Law."
SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $455,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for seven permanent full-time equivalent (7.0 FTE) positions and funding for hookaulike: a criminal legal system institute for restoration and healing, at the William S. Richardson School of Law as follows:
(1) $175,000 for one permanent full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) J-Faculty line to be anchored in the William S. Richardson School of Law and shared with the Hawaiinuiakea school of Hawaiian knowledge to serve as director;
(2) $80,000 for one permanent full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) APT - B level budget line to support the director, advance the mission of the institute, and assist with outreach and support of the institute's advocacy initiatives;
(3) $150,000 for five permanent full-time equivalent (5.0 FTE) graduate research assistant positions for students from both the William S. Richardson School of Law and the Hawaiinuiakea school of Hawaiian knowledge, and the community design center to support the mission and work of the institute; and
(4) $50,000 in operational funds to support the work of the institute through regular events, symposia, white papers, technology, or consultations devoted to connecting the work of other social justice leaders to improve the criminal legal system, from police or security contact, through sentencing and incarceration.
The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2022.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
UH; Law School; Prison Reform; Appropriation
Description:
Establishes the Hookaulike: A Criminal Legal System Institute for Restoration and Healing, at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law. Appropriates moneys.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
