Bill Text: HI HB2516 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Correctional Facilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-10 - Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on JHA with Representative(s) Kong voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Holt, Okimoto voting no (2) and Representative(s) McDermott excused (1). [HB2516 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HB2516-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2516 |
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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 correctional facilities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State has spent more than five years and at least $10,000,000 planning a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional center. However, the State has not included the relevant stakeholders or broader community in the planning process in a meaningful way despite strong and persistent recommendations to do so by the House Concurrent Resolution 85 Task Force on Prison Reform and the Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission.
Engaging the community in the jail planning process is widely recognized as a best practice and essential to creating a successful jail that meets the needs of the community. As the National Institute of Corrections has said, jails are not solely the concern of the governmental agencies and officials who run the jails; jails belong to the community and reflect the values of the community of which the jails are a part. Therefore, the community must be involved in the planning of new jails.
Community stakeholders provide aggregate knowledge, skills, intuition, insights, and wisdom necessary for solving collective challenges. Using this wisdom may shape the type of questions that are asked, challenge prevailing norms, and bring about unexpected insights that lead to innovative and transformative solutions.
The legislature further finds that the State has not followed a "systems approach" to jail planning. System planning, as set out in the National Institute of Corrections' Jail Capacity Planning Guide: A Systems Approach (2009), is a best practice and is essential to building an appropriately sized jail and managing jail populations on a long-term basis. The systems approach shifts the nature of jail planning from simply making population forecasts based on past trends and the assumption that the policies driving the jail population will remain unchanged, to developing a continuum of options for law enforcement and judges in which jails are only one option among many, that should be used sparingly and as a last resort. The systems approach calls on planners to "plan as much for programs as they do for [jail] beds."
Systems planning examines the policies and practices that drive the jail population and addresses these policies and practices in ways that reduce the jail population without compromising public safety. Research by the Vera Institute of Justice has shown that the failure of planners to address the policies and practices that lead to jail population increases creates a vicious cycle in which the new jails created to reduce overcrowding rapidly fill to capacity, creating a demand for more capacity, and precipitating a costly building cycle.
Reducing and effectively managing jail populations is important because jails are extremely expensive to build and maintain. In 2018 the departments of public safety and accounting and general services estimated that building a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional center would cost approximately $525,000,000. However, this estimate is no longer accurate due to significant cost increases in the State's construction industry. This new jail is likely to cost approximately $1,000,000,000, or roughly $770,000 per bed for the one thousand three hundred-bed facility.
The departments of public safety and accounting and general services plan to use a public-private partnership to plan, design, finance, construct, and maintain the new jail. The legislature finds that while public-private partnerships may be appropriate to deliver some types of public infrastructure, the partnerships are not appropriate for jails as jail planning requires highly transparent planning, designing, financing, construction, and management, as well as public participation that simply cannot be achieved with a public-private partnership.
On January 3, 2022, the Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission called on the State to stop the planned issuance of a request for qualifications and a request for proposals to build a new Oahu community correctional center through a public-private partnership. The Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission noted that the jail now being planned is too big, too expansive, and will perpetuate a punitive model for the State's correctional system.
The Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission has also called for government officials and a broad range of community stakeholders; including the agencies that provide health, housing, and employment services to the community; formerly incarcerated individuals; representatives of cultural groups that reflect the justice-involved population; victim advocates; and individuals having knowledge and expertise in various aspects of the justice system to work together in a collaborative manner to plan a jail that will meet the needs of the community.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to pause the development of a public-private partnership for a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional center and create a criminal justice reform committee.
SECTION 2. Chapter 353, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§353- In-state correctional facilities; pause of
development of new jail. Notwithstanding sections 353-16.35 or
353-16.36 or any other law to the contrary, no department, agency, board,
commission, or employee of the State shall:
(1) Expend moneys
or take any action to create a public‑private partnership to plan for, finance,
design, develop, or construct a new jail on Oahu;
(2) Issue, publish,
circulate, or solicit a request for qualifications from any private entity related
to the private entity's ability to plan for, finance, design, develop, or
construct a new jail on Oahu;
(3) Issue, publish,
circulate, or solicit a request for proposals to plan for, finance, design,
develop, or construct a new jail on Oahu;
(4) Enter into a
contract with any entity to plan for, finance, develop, design, or construct a
new jail on Oahu as part of a public-private partnership; or
(5) Expend moneys
or take any actions to plan for a new facility to replace, or expand the existing,
women's community correctional center.
§353- Criminal
justice reform committee. (a)
The Hawaii correctional systems
oversight commission shall establish a criminal justice reform committee which
shall participate as a full partner in planning, designing, financing,
developing, and constructing a new jail to replace the Oahu
community correctional center.
(b) The criminal justice reform committee and each
entity, whether public or private, involved in planning, designing, financing,
developing, and constructing a new jail to replace the Oahu community
correctional center shall, as part of the planning process, work collaboratively
to:
(1) Identify the
policies and practices causing an increase in the State's jail population and
make recommendations to the legislature on ways to address those policies and
practices in a manner that will improve the criminal legal system and safely
reduce the Oahu community correctional center inmate population;
(2) Recommend
policies and programs to the legislature that will create alternatives to jail,
particularly for people accused of offenses arising from, or associated with, homelessness,
poverty, mental illness, and substance use disorders;
(3) Recommend
policies and programs that will reduce the overrepresentation of native
Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the State's criminal justice system; and
(4) Make any other
recommendations as the committee deems appropriate to improve the State's criminal
justice system.
(c) The criminal justice reform committee shall submit
a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed
legislation, to the legislature no later than December 20, 2023. The report shall include a plan for the
replacement of the Oahu community correctional center, including but not limited
to a plan for addressing the policies and practices causing an increase in the Oahu
community correctional center inmate population, any recommendations to
significantly reduce the Oahu community correctional center inmate population,
and the estimated cost of a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional
center in a manner that does not compromise public safety.
(d) The preferred qualifications for committee
members shall be possessing knowledge of:
(1) Criminal justice
or correctional systems and policies;
(2) Poverty,
homelessness, mental health, and substance use disorders;
(3) Native Hawaiian
and Pacific Islander cultural practices with an emphasis on healing and
reducing recidivism;
(4) Creating
alternatives to incarceration through diversion, bail reform, the treatment of
mental illness and substance use disorders, harm reduction practices,
low-income housing programs, best practices in pretrial procedures, and
programs to reduce poverty.
(e) Committee members shall elect a chairperson
and vice‑chairperson of the commission.
(f) Members of the committee shall serve without compensation
but shall be reimbursed for expenses necessary for the performance of the members'
duties, including travel expenses.
(g) No member of the committee shall be made
subject to the financial disclosure requirements of sections 84-13 and 84‑17
solely because of that member's participation as a member of the committee. The terms of the committee members shall be years."
SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for the operations of the criminal justice reform committee.
The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of the attorney general for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2022, and shall be repealed on .
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Department of the Attorney General; Hawaii Correctional Systems Oversight Commission; Oahu Community Correctional Center; New Jail; Criminal Justice Reform Committee; Appropriation
Description:
Pauses development of a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional center. Requires the Hawaii Correctional Systems Oversight Commission to establish a Criminal Justice Reform Committee. 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.
