STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1202

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                   

 

RE:     H.B. No. 823

        H.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 823, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DEATHS WITHIN THE CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Expand the scope of inmate and corrections employee deaths that are reported and require the reports of deaths to be published on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's website; and

 

     (2)  Clarify the information to be included in the reports after the official cause of death is determined and mandate public access to certain information within those reports.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission, Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, Opportunity Youth Action Hawai‘i, Community Alliance on Prisons, and six individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Public Safety.

 

     Your Committee finds that Arizona, California, and Nevada require the public reporting of the deaths of incarcerated persons.  Your Committee believes that the public should know the identity of people who die while incarcerated.  This measure will promote governmental transparency by codifying a process for the public disclosure of deaths of incarcerated individuals.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 823, H.D. 2, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

________________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair