STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2143

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2641

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2641 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE JUDICIARY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate monies for residential programs that allow minor children to remain with their mothers to reduce the risk of trauma and multigenerational incarceration, including community‑based furlough programs, residential drug treatment programs, therapeutic community programs, and mental health programs.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Women's Prison Project, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center, and four individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that as of 2018, seventy-five percent of incarcerated women in Hawai‘i had children. Previous surveys have shown that many women who are on parole are also mothers of minor children. Incarceration of mothers that results in separation from their children has been well documented to have devastating negative developmental and emotional impacts on children. These impacts can increase the risk of multigenerational incarceration. The separation also has a destructive and traumatic impact on mothers. This measure appropriates funds to keep mothers and their children together, which will reduce trauma for children and mothers, lower the risks of recidivism, and help break the intergenerational cycle of incarceration.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Amending section 1 to include additional findings; and

(2) Inserting a $200,000 appropriation amount.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2641, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair