Bill Text: HI HB415 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Corrections; Audit; Department of Public Safety Contracts
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2010-06-25 - (S) Vetoed on 06-24-10 - Returned from the Governor without approval (Gov. Msg. No. 638). [HB415 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2010-HB415-Amended.html
|
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
415 |
|
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009 |
H.D. 2 |
|
|
STATE OF HAWAII |
S.D. 2 |
|
|
|
C.D. 1 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to request an audit of department of public safety contracts for prison beds and services with private entities outside of Hawaii and the federal government.
A senate ad hoc committee reviewed and assessed the impact that the closure of Kulani correctional facility and other imminent reduction in government services would have on Hawaii's communities, inmates, and the state's correctional system. Information gathered at briefings held in Hilo and Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island and the state capitol, revealed that:
(1) The Kulani correctional facility, in operation since 1946, is a minimum security facility situated on eight thousand acres outside Hilo, Hawaii. The facility houses adult male felons serving the last four years toward their tentative parole date;
(2) The facility is the only department of public safety facility that is a mandatory work camp, requiring all inmates to work full time. Unlike other facilities that have only limited vocational training in mostly unskilled positions, Kulani correctional facility offers a wide range of educational training and occupational skills programs focusing on mechanical repair and maintenance, construction, heavy equipment operation, computer work, and horticulture and conservation. Inmates use these skills in community service projects, helping Hawaii Island communities with projects that would otherwise be unaffordable;
(3) The Kulani correctional facility is the only department of public safety facility with a sex offender treatment program for minimum-custody sex offenders who are neither violent nor mentally challenged and are willing to work. The sex offender treatment program is one of the most successful in the nation. Treatment providers attribute this success to the facility's unique provision of treatment in an environment where inmates must also work and function responsibly with minimum supervision. Options for inmate transfer to other facilities with sex offender treatment are limited and would involve, for example, housing minimum-custody inmates in medium-security facilities, which conflicts with the standards of the American Correctional Association and the department of public safety's policy and procedures; and
(4) While the Kulani correctional facility is a one hundred sixty-bed facility, it has housed up to two hundred twenty inmates without operational problems.
Chapter 353H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Community Safety Act of 2007, requires the department of public safety to develop a comprehensive and effective offender reentry system plan for adult offenders exiting the prison system. That Act further requires the department to develop comprehensive reentry plans and curricula for individuals exiting correctional facilities to reduce recidivism and increase a person's successful reentry into the community. Kulani correctional facility played a pivotal role in the reentry system, by preparing qualified inmates for their eventual return to the community by providing job training, treatment programs, and graduated exposure to the community. Moreover, Kulani correctional facility's programs were coordinated and articulated with those at the Hawaii community correctional center/Hale Nani, the reentry point for Hawaii Island inmates, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of reentry on the island of Hawaii.
The legislature further finds that the closure of this facility with its unique and needed programs, when considered with the fact that six of nine Hawaii correctional facilities are under capacity, raises the question of the cost-effectiveness of the department of public safety's policy of contracting outside of the state to house a substantial number of Hawaii inmates in mainland private prisons at significant cost to the State and to the detriment of Hawaii inmates whose consideration for parole has and will be delayed due to the absence at these facilities of programs needed by the inmates to complete their prescriptive programs.
SECTION 2. The auditor is directed to conduct an audit of the department of public safety's contracts for prison beds and services outside of Hawaii, focusing on a comparison, in terms of quality of programming, costs, and economic benefit to the state, with housing Hawaii inmates in Hawaii facilities operated by the State.
The auditor shall also conduct an audit of the department of public safety's contract with the federal detention center in Honolulu, focusing on a comparison, in terms of quality of programming, costs, and economic benefit to the state, with housing Hawaii inmates in Hawaii facilities operated by the State.
The auditor is directed to, among other things:
(1) Address the closure of the Kulani correctional facility as part of its analysis in conducting this comparison; and
(2) Make a recommendation on whether the continued housing of Hawaii inmates in mainland facilities and in the federal detention center in Honolulu is advisable, in view of the explicit requirements of Chapter 353H, Hawaii Revised Statutes, Community Safety Act of 2007, and its subsequent amendments.
SECTION 3. The auditor shall report its findings and recommendations to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2011.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Report Title:
Corrections; Audit; Department of Public Safety Contracts
Description:
Directs the auditor to conduct an audit of the Department of Public Safety's contracts for prison beds and services outside of Hawaii and with the federal detention center in Honolulu. (HB415 CD1)
The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent
