STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3745

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2483

H.D. 1

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2483, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD CHECKS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to search criminal histories and fingerprint records of current and prospective volunteers and contracted and subcontracted service providers and their employees who are directly involved in providing correctional programs, treatment, and services to persons committed to a correctional facility or who are placed in close proximity to persons committed when providing services on behalf of the Department or the correctional facility.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Your Committee finds that in 2022, the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center notified the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that the Department has no legal authority to conduct background checks. However, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's Corrections Programs and Services Division (CPSD) is responsible for vetting and training volunteers and service providers that provide programs and services to the offender population at correctional facilities statewide. The inability to conduct background checks has negatively impacted CPSD's ability to provide programs and services that are imperative to an offender's success in rehabilitation and eventual reentry into the community. This measure will ensure that correctional programs and services are staffed with qualified individuals and volunteers by allowing the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to properly vet and conduct background checks on potential volunteers and contractors.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Making it effective upon its approval; and

(2) 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 Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2483, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2483, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair