STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2063

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2480

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2480 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITY COMMISSARIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to direct the Auditor to conduct an audit of certain correctional facility commissaries in the State.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Community Alliance on Prisons; The CHOW Project; Ho‘omana Pono, LLC; and two individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Public Safety and Office of the Auditor.

     Your Committee finds that high prices at correctional facility commissaries are an ongoing issue in Hawaii.  Incarcerated persons and their families frequently pay prices at commissaries that are much higher than prices for the same goods at retail stores.  Your Committee further finds that an audit of correctional facility commissaries will help identify and eliminate instances of overcharging.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the source of the appropriations to the general revenues of the State; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2480, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2480, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair