Bill Text: HI SCR144 | 2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requesting The Department Of Accounting And General Services, Department Of Budget And Finance, And Department Of Public Safety To Testify On Any Legislation That Would Potentially Increase Overcrowding Conditions At Hawaii's Correctional Facilities.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-16 - Referred to GVO/PSM, WAM. [SCR144 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2021-SCR144-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.C.R. NO. |
144 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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SENATE CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION
REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING AND GENERAL SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF BUDGET AND FINANCE, AND DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO TESTIFY ON ANY LEGISLATION THAT WOULD POTENTIALLY INCREASE OVERCROWDING CONDITIONS AT HAWAII'S CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES.
WHEREAS, from 1978 to 2016, the combined jail and prison populations in the State increased six hundred seventy percent from seven hundred twenty-seven prisoners to 5,602 individuals, while the state population increased by fifty-three percent during the same period; and
WHEREAS, on February 21, 2021, the Department of Public Safety reported that forty-eight percent of people imprisoned in Hawaii's correctional facilities are pretrial detainees, probation, and parole violators; and
WHEREAS, pretrial detention has a significant impact on downstream criminal justice outcomes, both in their immediate case and through potential criminal activity of detained defendants; and
WHEREAS, detention increases the rate of guilty pleas, and leads detained individuals to commit more crimes in the future; non-felony conviction rates jumped from fifty percent of individuals released pre-trial to ninety percent for those who were jailed; and
WHEREAS, it costs $198 per day to hold an inmate in custody in Hawaii. The imprisonment of pretrial detainees, many of whom cannot afford bail, and probation violators costs taxpayers $138,006 per day, $966,042 per week, $3,864,168 per month, and $46,370,016 per year; and
WHEREAS, Native Hawaiians continue to be disproportionately incarcerated and disparately impacted, constituting just eighteen percent of the State's adult population, but thirty-seven percent of the incarcerated population. Native Hawaiians are more likely to receive a prison sentence post-conviction and are likely to receive a longer prison sentence or probation terms for similar offenses than most other racial or ethnic groups. The overcriminalization of Native Hawaiians at every stage of the criminal justice system reflects a punitive ethos and structural racism embedded in multiple institutions that deal with those accused or convicted of crimes; and
WHEREAS, incarceration disproportionately impacts Black communities; while three percent of adults in the State are Black, five percent of people incarcerated are Black; and
WHEREAS, the number of women incarcerated grew by two hundred sixty-five percent between 1990 and 2017; and
WHEREAS, 53.3 percent of inmates who are released on parole and sixty-six percent of individuals who serve their maximum sentence recidivate within three years of release. Of those who reoffend, sixty-three percent do so in their first year, twenty-six percent within their second year, and eleven percent within their third year of release, indicating that reversion to crime is not gradual, but immediate, and that time spent in prison does not rehabilitate, but merely punishes and incapacitates; and
WHEREAS, Hawaii's prisons are old, dilapidated, and severely crowded, holding more prisoners than either their originally designed or modified operational capacities allow; and
WHEREAS, Hawaii Community Correctional Center is currently operating at one hundred thirty-one percent of its capacity, Maui Community Correctional Center is operating at 100.7 percent of its capacity, Kauai Community Correctional Center is operating at 110.2 percent of its capacity, and Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) is operating at 95.7 percent of its capacity; and
WHEREAS, legislation has been introduced to require the Department of Public Safety to develop a 1,380-bed jail for men at the new OCCC that will cost $525,000,000, or $380,000 per bed; and spend an additional $45,000,000 to expand the Women's Community Correctional Center to accommodate the women currently being held at OCCC; and
WHEREAS, the State plans to build new medium security housing at jails on Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii island, at an as yet undetermined cost; and
WHEREAS, on March 1, 2021, the Department of Public Safety Population Report demonstrated that seventy-seven percent of the individuals imprisoned at OCCC are pretrial detainees (fifty-five percent) and probation violators (twenty-two percent), most often because they cannot afford the amount of bail set in their case; and
WHEREAS, in 2016, the Legislature authorized the establishment of a task force to study effective incarceration policies to improve Hawaii's correctional system through House Concurrent Resolution No. 85 (H.C.R. No. 85); and
WHEREAS, the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission (Oversight Commission) was created by Act 179, Session Laws of Hawaii 2019, to ensure "transparency, support safe conditions for employees, inmates, and detainees, and provide positive reform towards a rehabilitative and therapeutic correctional system"; and
WHEREAS, the relocation and construction of OCCC is the largest public works project in Hawaii's history and has thus far incurred $10,400,000 in consultant fees; and
WHEREAS, the task force established by H.C.R. No. 85 and the Oversight Commission recommended that the State immediately halt plans for the costly jail to replace OCCC until meaningful changes to the criminal legal system, criticized that the planning for the jail is occurring without any meaningful input or guidance from the community, and noted that the planners also failed to identify the factors driving the jail population and recommend policies that would significantly reduce that population without compromising public safety; and
WHEREAS, the task force established by H.C.R. No. 85 and Oversight Commission found that Hawaii must dramatically change its approach to corrections, especially in implementing pretrial incarceration reforms, including divestment from incarceration and reinvestment in our communities; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Accounting and General Services, Department of Budget and Finance, and Department of Public Safety are requested to submit public testimony on all proposed legislation that could potentially increase jail populations in the State; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Accounting and General Services is requested to include in its testimony the potential impact of proposed legislation on facilities, especially on increased overcrowding and non-compliance on consent decrees based on an extrapolation of relevant and recent data; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Budget and Finance is requested to include in its testimony the potential fiscal impact the proposed legislation could have on state spending based on an extrapolation of relevant and recent data; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Public Safety include in its testimony:
(1) Any evidence that the proposed legislation will result in the outcomes it purports to achieve, and in the absence of such evidence testify that there is no available evidence that the proposed legislation will result in the outcomes it purports to achieve; and
(2) Alternatives to incarceration that may be more effective and equal in costs, equally effective and less costly, or more effective and less costly; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Director of Accounting and General Services, Director of Budget and Finance, Director of Public Safety, and Chairperson of the Hawaii Systems Correctional Oversight Commission.
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OFFERED BY: |
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Department of Accounting and General Services; Department of Budget and Finance; Department of Public Safety; Overcrowding, Correctional Facilities
