STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2860

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2641

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 1, 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 moneys for residential programs, including community‑based furlough programs, residential drug treatment programs, therapeutic community programs, and mental health programs, that allow minor children to remain with their mothers.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center, Women's Prison Project, and three individuals.

Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Department of Public Safety.

Your Committee finds that the majority of the State's incarcerated women have children. Your Committee also finds that because the incarceration of mothers results in separation from their children, there is a risk that the children will suffer from trauma and eventually become incarcerated themselves. Accordingly, your Committee believes that funding a program that allow minors to remain with their mothers during the mothers' program participation will help avoid these negative outcomes.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation from $200,000 to an unspecified amount;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

(3) Making technical nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2641, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair