STAND. COM. REP. NO. 227-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 676

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committees on Public Safety and Human Services & Homelessness, to which was referred H.B. No. 676 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO YOUTH AND ADULT CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the State's youth and adult correctional facilities to provide accessible, functional, and free voice communication services for incarcerated persons;

(2) Prohibit any state agency from deriving any revenue or financial benefit from the provision of communication services to persons confined in the State's youth and adult correctional facilities; and

(3) Require the Public Utilities Commission to establish service quality standards and rules for the free voice communication services provided to youth and adult correctional facilities.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Public Defender; American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi; Community Alliance on Prisons; Worth Rises; Hawaiʻi Friends of Restorative Justice; and six individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the SAVIN Governance Committee; Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Hawaiʻi; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Maui; Sex Abuse Treatment Center; Hawaiʻi State Coalition Against Domestic Violence; and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; Public Utilities Commission; Office of Youth Services; and Life of the Land.

Your Committees find that individuals who maintain strong family and community ties while incarcerated generally experience better outcomes after release, including lower rates of recidivism and increased stability in housing and employment. This measure supports the successful reentry of youth and adult offenders into the community after they have served their sentences.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to provide free voice communication services to incarcerated persons to an unspecified amount;

(2) Changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committees respectfully request your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce and your Committee on Finance, should they deliberate on this measure, to consider the issue of how to contain the costs associated with providing these free services, which can become difficult to maintain, as other states have experienced. Your Committees acknowledge the testimony that the provision of free communications services may result in the unintended consequence of cutting services for inmates in other areas.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety and Human Services & Homelessness that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 676, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 676, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety and Human Services & Homelessness,

____________________________ LISA MARTEN, Chair

____________________________ DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair