STAND. COM. REP. NO. 446

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1039

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, and Transportation and Energy, to which was referred S.B. No. 1039 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Public Safety to work with appropriate federal and state agencies to assist inmates in obtaining important government documents, including a social security card, driver's license, civil identification card, or birth certificate.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Public Safety; Hawaii Paroling Authority; Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; American Association of University Women Hawaii; Community Alliance on Prisons; Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice; Hoomana Pono, LLC; YWCA Oahu; The CHOW Project; and seventeen individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that helping inmates transition back into everyday life is a vital component of successful inmate rehabilitation.  One of the problems inmates encounter is that they are incarcerated for long periods and often lose important government documents pertaining to their identities.  Upon release, the lack of necessary government-issued identification documents, such as a social security card, birth certificate, driver's license, or civil identification card, can prevent a former inmate from being able to successfully transition back into society.  Therefore, it is necessary to establish guidelines requiring the Department of Public Safety to work with appropriate federal and state agencies to assist eligible inmates in obtaining important government documents.

 

     In establishing these guidelines, your Committees note the testimony of the Community Alliance on Prisons and the YWCA recommending that inmates in work furlough, extended furlough, and community placement programs also benefit from assistance in obtaining important government documents.  Your Committees also acknowledge the concerns of the Department of Public Safety recognizing that pre-trial detainees and short-term inmates should not qualify for assistance and that inmates seeking birth certificates from the State should not be required to pay any related fees for a copy of that birth certificate or a civil identification card.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring the Department of Public Safety to begin the process of obtaining important government documents for inmates released for work furlough, extended furlough, and community placement programs at least ninety days prior to release;

 

     (2)  Disqualifying pre-trial detainees and inmates sentenced to less than one year from assistance in obtaining government documents;

 

     (3)  Deleting language that would have prevented inmates in compassionate release, work furlough, extended furlough, and community placement programs from obtaining assistance;

 

     (4)  Establishing that the Department of Public Safety, working with other state agencies, will provide any Hawaii-born inmate seeking one, a certified copy of the inmate's birth certificate and a civil identification card free of charge;

 

     (5)  Making conforming amendments; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, and Transportation and Energy that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1039, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1039, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, and Transportation and Energy,

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

 

 

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair