STAND. COM. REP. NO. 131-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 2310

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. 2310 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RECIDIVISM PREVENTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish within the Department of Public Safety's Offender Reentry Office a five-year Recidivism Prevention Pilot Program, consisting of three components: a housing voucher program, child care voucher program, and income tax credit for employers to assist the reentry efforts of certain individuals who exited the Women's Community Correctional Center, for two years after exit;

(2) Establish five full-time equivalent Transition Navigator positions within the Department of Public Safety's Offender Reentry Office; and

(3) Appropriate funds for the pilot program and positions.

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

Your Committee finds that the housing and child care voucher programs proposed by this measure would provide two years of transitional support for women exiting the Women's Community Correctional Center who meet certain income and other criteria, while the income tax credit would incentivize employers to hire them. The pilot program would thereby assist with some basic needs to promote stability for women exiting the correctional system and their families and prevent recidivism. Your Committee further finds that allowing these three components of the pilot program to continue for five years will provide a basis for evaluating how these benefits affect recidivism rates.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Placing the pilot program and associated funding and positions within the Judiciary, rather than the Department of Public Safety;

(2) Requiring the Judiciary to inform the Department of Taxation of the identity of program participants and their employers;

(3) Authorizing the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to provide the Department of Taxation with the information necessary to verify all claims for the new tax credits;

(4) Specifying the taxable years to which the tax credit will apply;

(5) Adding a repeal date;

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

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

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. 2310, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2310, 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