STAND. COM. REP. NO. 131

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1470

S.D. 1

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 S.B. No. 1470 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Public Safety to install cameras at the Women's Community Correctional Center;

(2) Require guards to wear functioning body cameras while on duty at the Women's Community Correctional Center; and

(3) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission, Community Alliance on Prisons, Opportunity Youth Action Hawai‘i, and five individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO.

Your Committee finds that a civil lawsuit in federal court alleged that a group of women at the Women's Community Correctional Center were sexually assaulted at least fifty-three times from 2013 to 2016. A majority of the sexual assault allegedly occurred in the correctional center's control rooms, which lack sufficient security camera coverage. Your Committee believes that additional cameras in control rooms would help deter sexual assaults. This measure will build a defense against future lawsuits and protect inmates from rogue guards by requiring the Department of Public Safety to install cameras at any correctional center that houses women.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Adding language that requires the Department of Public Safety to install digital cameras in all guard control rooms in any correctional center that houses women, not just the Women's Community Correctional Center;

(2) Deleting language that would have required the Department of Public Safety to require guards to wear functioning body cameras while on duty at the Women's Community Correctional Center;

(3) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

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

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 S.B. No. 1470, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1470, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair