STAND. COM. REP. NO. 128-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 2257

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans, to which was referred H.B. No. 2257 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REENTRY PLANNING CIRCLES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for reentry planning circles for incarcerated women.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Correctional System Oversight Commission, Women's Prison Project, Hawai‘i Friends of Restorative Justice, Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center, Community Alliance on Prisons, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Public Safety and Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that reentry planning circles provide an opportunity for an incarcerated person to make meaningful amends, set goals, and plan for the future. Your Committee further finds that incarcerated persons who participate in reentry planning circles before leaving prison have significantly lower recidivism rates.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the reference to the number of incarcerated women to be served by reentry planning circles;

(2) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Should your Committee on Finance decide to hear this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider appropriating $200,000 for the reentry planning circles for incarcerated women.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2257, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2257, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans,

____________________________

TAKASHI OHNO, Chair