Bill Text: HI SCR127 | 2023 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 127 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Requesting The Judiciary, Office Of The Public Defender, And Prosecuting Attorney Of The City And County Of Honolulu To Establish A Permanent Community Outreach Mobile Court And To Expand Its Service To All Non-violent Homeless Individuals By Working Together With Community Providers And Submit The Protocol And Budget For Effective Operations.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-15 - Referred to JDC/HHS. [SCR127 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2023-SCR127-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	127
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

Requesting the judiciary, office of the public defender, and Prosecuting attorney of the city and county of honolulu to establish a permanent community outreach mobile court and to expand its service to all non-violent homeless INDIVIDUALS by working together with community providers and submit the protocol and budget for effective operations.

WHEREAS, Act 55, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017 (Act 55), established the Community Court Outreach Project in the City and County of Honolulu to offer combined accountability and treatment options to offenders to reduce crime and recidivism and help nonviolent offenders who face problems such as drug abuse and mental health challenges to obtain basic services and necessities, like food and shelter; and

WHEREAS, the purpose and goal of Act 55 was to address the issues facing homeless individuals who have contact with the criminal justice system; and

WHEREAS, the stated purpose of the Community Court Outreach Project is to operate a mobile court that travels to communities where defendants have been cited or arrested for certain nonviolent offenses and do not pose a threat to the public and dispose of the cases for defendants who enter plea agreements after negotiations between the Prosecuting Attorney and Public Defender; and

WHEREAS, as of February 2023, since the Community Court Outreach Project's inception, four hundred seventy people have participated in the program, 7,663 cases have been cleared, and 5,645 community service hours have been completed; and

WHEREAS, the Judiciary administers and operates the Community Court Outreach Project and the Prosecuting Attorney and Public Defender participate in the project; and

WHEREAS, the Community Court Outreach Project has been successful in addressing nonfelony offenses for nonviolent offenders by recalling outstanding bench warrants and converting monetary fines to community service work hours in order to help clear the offenders' criminal or traffic matters; and

WHEREAS, the Community Court Outreach Project is uniquely positioned to not only resolve participants' pending criminal and traffic cases but also to address the personal and socioeconomic conditions that may be the root cause of participants' involvement with the courts; and

WHEREAS, unless these root causes are addressed, participants may not be able to break free of the cycle of homelessness or contact with the criminal justice system; and

WHEREAS, in order to break this cycle, it is critical that participants' individual needs be identified and assessed so that they may be referred to and connected with appropriate social service providers who are willing and able to assist them in addressing those needs; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature has provided and continues to provide funding for social service providers, including the Department of Human Services, Department of Health, Institute for Human Services, and Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center, some of which already have connections with the Community Court Outreach Project; and

WHEREAS, this body intends for these identified social service providers, as well as others, to coordinate efforts with the Community Court Outreach Project to provide needed services to the affected individuals who have contact with the Community Court Outreach Project; and

WHEREAS, while the Community Court Outreach Project has been successful, in order to reach its full potential, there must be coordinated efforts to reach agreements and understandings, which may be memorialized through memoranda of agreement or understanding between the Judiciary, Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, and Office of the Public Defender to identify the processes for:

(1) Referring homeless nonviolent, nonfelony defendants to the Community Court Outreach Project;

(2) Identifying the personal, socioeconomic needs for each participant, as well as the life skills that will provide a foundation for future success;

(3) Referring each participant to appropriate service providers to address those identified needs and life skills;

(4) Monitoring each participant's progress in identified life skill areas in order to successfully progress through the Community Court Outreach Project and set the participant up for success; and

(5) Monitoring each participant's compliance with the terms and conditions of sentencing in their criminal or traffic case, and providing participants with sufficient time to comply, so that bench warrants, referrals to collection agencies, and imposition of additional license and registration stoppers can be avoided; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Judiciary, Office of the Public Defender, and Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu are requested to establish a permanent community outreach mobile court and to expand its service to all non-violent homeless individuals by working together with community providers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Judiciary, Office of the Public Defender, and Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu are urged to identify processes and procedures to move the Community Court Outreach Project forward through memoranda of agreement or understanding, memorialized in writing, if deemed appropriate, to identify the processes:

(1) To improve the referral process to the Community Court Outreach Project;

(2) To improve the needs assessment for project participants;

(3) To refer project participants to and connect them with appropriate social service providers to assist in developing meaningful and longstanding relationships that will help project participants in the areas identified as requiring improvement or addressing; and

(4) To appropriately monitor the project participants during their time with the Community Court Outreach Project and beyond to continue assisting them to strengthen those areas identified as needing strengthening and encouraging them to share information to help other future program participants in order to learn those processes and procedures that are most influential and beneficial for program participants' success; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Judiciary is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations regarding making the community outreach mobile court permanent and the protocol and budget for effective operations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2024; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, and State Public Defender.