STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2439

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2917

       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. 2917 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Create an exemption from the requirement for an environmental assessment for a jail facility to be built adjacent to Halawa Correctional Facility;

     (2)  Reduce the public comment period for certain projects to develop or expand certain in-state correctional facilities to reduce prison or jail overcrowding; and

     (3)  Appropriate funds for the purchase of jail facilities to relocate the Oahu Community Correction Center adjacent to the Halawa Correctional Facility.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Building Industry Association Hawaii, and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Ho‘omana Pono, LLC; Community Alliance on Prisons; Life of the Land; Sierra Club of Hawaii; and four individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committee finds that the existing Oahu Community Correctional Center facility is deteriorating, outmoded, and inefficient.  The facility is severely overcrowded and not sufficient for the correctional needs of the State.  Additionally, the facility's close proximity to residential neighborhoods, commercial enterprises, and industrial areas makes the location better suited for other uses.  For these reasons, your Committee finds that a new community correctional center facility should be constructed.  Your Committee also finds that the development of a new community correctional center facility should not be exempt from the required environmental assessment or have a shortened period of public comment.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Providing additional flexibility in the Department of Public Safety's procurement methods for development or expansion of in-state correctional facilities;

     (2)  Removing language exempting the proposed development of a new community correctional facility from the requirement for an environmental assessment;

     (3)  Removing language reducing the period of public comment before expansion or construction;

     (4)  Increasing the capacity of the proposed facility from 1,000 to 1,250 beds;

     (5)  Expanding the use of the appropriated funds to the construction, development, leasing, and otherwise providing for jail facilities; and

     (6)  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 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. 2917, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2917, 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,

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CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair