STAND. COM. REP. NO. 645

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 712

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 712 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys to Windward Community College to support a level I trauma-informed certification program for adult corrections officers.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety; Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission; Judiciary; Department of Health; University of Hawai‘i System; United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO; Opportunity Youth Action Hawai‘i; University of Hawaii Professional Assembly; Hawai‘i Friends of Restorative Justice; Women's Prison Project; Adult Friends for Youth; and fourteen individuals.

Your Committees find that a significant proportion of the individuals in the corrections and rehabilitation system have experienced serious trauma during their lifetimes. Your Committees further find that when corrections professionals are trained to properly assess and interact with persons who have experienced trauma, those professionals are better able to engage those individuals, which makes those individuals more likely to connect with vital services and less likely to commit disciplinary infractions or recidivate. Your Committees believe that the establishment of a level I trauma-informed certification program may help to ensure that the State's corrections professionals are properly trained in trauma-informed care. This measure will improve the rehabilitation of individuals in the corrections and rehabilitation system by appropriating moneys to Windward Community College to support a level I trauma-informed certification program for adult corrections officers.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 712, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 712, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Higher Education,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair