STAND. COM. REP. NO. 51

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 221

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 Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 221 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu for the Victim Witness Assistance Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Hawai‘i, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the Victim Witness Assistance Program provides direct support services to the victims and witnesses of crimes committed in Hawaii. Your Committee further finds that the Honolulu Victim Witness Kokua Services Unit has helped over four thousand crime victims. Victims are usually the key witnesses in a case and without their testimony, criminals often could not be held responsible for their actions. Your Committee believes that increased funding is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of this important program.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to a grant-in-aid; and

(2) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committee notes that the Senate Draft 1 of this measure contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it considers inserting an appropriation amount of $736,785.

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 S.B. No. 221, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 221, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair