STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2367

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2211

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety, to which was referred S.B. No. 2211 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CHILDREN OF INCARCERATED PARENTS TASK FORCE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to re-establish the Task Force on Children of Incarcerated Parents to continue to operate until December 31, 2010.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Education, the Department of Public Safety, the Office of Youth Services, the Community Alliance on Prisons, the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i, Hawaii Youth Services Network, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Task Force on Children of Incarcerated Parents, and two private citizens.

     Your Committees find that national data show that children whose parents are incarcerated are six to seven times more likely than their peers to become incarcerated themselves, and that the task force needs more time to develop programs and support services for these children and their families in an effort to break the cycle of incarceration in the State. 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2211 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Public Safety,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair