STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1328

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: S.B. No. 710

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Corrections, Military & Veterans, to which was referred S.B. No. 710, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INCARCERATED WOMEN,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the McKinley Community School for Adults to work with Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice to provide counseling services for incarcerated women participating in the education and reentry program for incarcerated women;

(2) Appropriate monies as a grant for the University of Hawaii Windward Community College education and reentry program for incarcerated women; and

(3) Authorize the University of Hawaii Windward Community College to award grants to private entities.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety, Department of Education, University of Hawai‘i System, McKinley Community School for Adults, Community Alliance on Prisons, Women's Prison Project, Hawai‘i Friends of Restorative Justice, and six individuals.

Your Committee finds that the first year of the education and reentry program for incarcerated women that was administered by Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice proved to be successful in training incarcerated women to be general education development tutors for their peers, offering college correspondence courses, and providing reentry and transition services for women who wish to continue their education after release from incarceration. This measure helps incarcerated women achieve their educational goals and provides them with a gateway to social and economic mobility.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have required the McKinley Community School for Adults to work with Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice to provide counseling services for incarcerated women participating in the education and reentry program for incarcerated women;

(2) Deleting language that would have appropriated monies to Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice as a grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(3) Inserting language that appropriates monies for an education and reentry program for incarcerated women to be administered by the University of Hawaii Windward Community College;

(4) Deleting language that would have authorized the University of Hawaii Windward Community College to award grants to private entities to administer the education and reentry program for incarcerated women;

(5) Changing the effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $250,000.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Corrections, Military & Veterans that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 710, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 710, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Corrections, Military & Veterans,

____________________________

MARK J. HASHEM, Chair