STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1145-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 1769

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1769, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Director of Corrections and Rehabilitation to incrementally return committed felons incarcerated in private, out-of-state correctional institutions to in-state correctional facilities.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Office of the Public Defender; Hawaiʻi Correctional System Oversight Commission; ʻEkolu Mea Nui; Ohana Hoʻopakele; Hawaiʻi Friends of Restorative Justice; Community Alliance on Prisons; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii's long-standing reliance on private, out-of-state correctional facilities has separated incarcerated individuals from their families, culture, and support systems, resulting in increased trauma and barriers to rehabilitation. Your Committee further finds that these transfers reduce transparency and accountability while disproportionately harming Native Hawaiians and other communities already overrepresented in the criminal legal system. Your Committee believes that gradually ending the use of out-of-state private prisons and returning individuals to facilities within Hawaii will strengthen rehabilitation, support family connections, and advance a more just and community-based correctional system.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Further clarifying the process of reducing the number of committed felons incarcerated in private, out-of-state correctional facilities and transferring them to in-state correctional facilities;

(2) Codifying the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's reporting requirement to the Legislature regarding the process identified in paragraph (1); and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1769, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1769, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair