STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2139

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2507

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2507 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SENTENCING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to afford greater protection to persons sixty years of age or older who are victims of crime by establishing mandatory minimum prison terms for certain offenses committed against persons sixty years of age or older.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons.

     Your Committee finds that it is important to protect Hawaii's aging population from becoming targets of financial crimes such as theft, identity theft, and robbery.  Existing law holds criminals accountable for causing serious or substantial bodily injury to persons sixty years of age or older, but does not provide enhanced consequences for offenders who prey financially on or commit other types of offenses against individuals whom the defendant knows or reasonably should know are sixty years of age or older.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2507, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2507, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair