Bill Text: HI SCR6 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Community Placement Programs; Non-Violent Female Offenders
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-04-16 - (H) Referred to PBM, FIN, referral sheet 66 [SCR6 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2012-SCR6-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3023
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.C.R. No. 6
S.D. 1
Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui
President of the Senate
Twenty-Sixth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2012
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 6 entitled:
"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY TO REINVEST FUNDS USED FOR INCARCERATION TO STRUCTURED COMMUNITY PLACEMENT PROGRAMS FOR ELIGIBLE NON-VIOLENT FEMALE OFFENDERS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Department of Public Safety to reinvest funds used for incarceration to structured community placement programs for eligible non-violent female offenders.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Community Alliance on Prisons, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, and seven individuals.
Your Committee finds that the majority of Hawaii's incarcerated female offenders are non-violent offenders who are mothers of minor children, and upon imprisonment, many no longer have the option of remaining present in their children's lives. Their imprisonment may cause issues that stem from fragmented families and often become intergenerational problems.
A national shift toward gender responsiveness in the criminal justice system has revealed that community placement is much more effective in assisting female offenders. Structured community placement helps females adjust to greater independence as they transition and reunite with their children, resulting in a more integrated and seamless resocialization and reentry process. Many community placement programs are culturally sensitive and gender specific. This structured community placement approach makes a significant difference in the successful rehabilitation of female offenders and has a lasting effect on women and their families.
Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments, including amending the title for the purposes of clarity.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 6, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 6, S.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,
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____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair |
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