Report Title:

Drug Treatment Counselors; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates $100,000 in both fiscal years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 for two counselors on Maui to treat women incarcerated on drug-related charges.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1031

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

making an appropriation for DRUG TREATMENT FOR women DRUG-RELATED OFFENDERS on maui.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds the incarceration rate for women has been dramatically outpacing that of men. From 1995 to 1997, the number of imprisoned women increased by sixty-five per cent while the number of imprisoned men grew by twenty-eight per cent. The vast majority of female inmates are sentenced for nonviolent drug-related crimes, such as drug possession, theft, larceny, and prostitution. Most imprisoned drug-addicted offenders will eventually be released back into the community on parole or at the expiration of their sentences. Without proper treatment, an offender is likely to continue to be drug dependent and to commit new offenses, resulting in further injury to victims, loss of property, and the expenditure of limited resources for identification, apprehension, prosecution, and re-incarceration of the offender.

The legislature further finds that Hawaii's drug court program is experiencing a five per cent recidivism rate as compared to a twenty-five to thirty-five per cent recidivism rate for the general inmate population. The State's cost of placing an offender in the drug court program is $8,000 per year, compared to $32,000 a year for incarceration. Currently, women offenders on Maui qualifying for the drug court program are sent to the mainland for treatment. Maui county provides funding for only six women each year to participate in drug treatment on the mainland at a cost of $62,400.

The legislature further finds that in Hawaii, eighty per cent of women statewide are incarcerated on drug-related offenses. At the Maui community correction center, women are the fastest growing segment of the inmate population. Maui has the highest incidence of drug and alcohol abuse of any of the Hawaiian islands. More than eleven per cent of births on Maui are drug affected. Of these mothers, eighty per cent use alcohol, sixty per cent use marijuana, thirty per cent use cocaine, and twenty-three per cent use crystal-methamphetamine.

In the year 2000, two hundred two births were diagnosed as maternal substance abuse births. Medical complications often impact infants of drug dependent mothers. For example, infants exposed to cocaine during pregnancy are forty times more likely to develop abnormalities, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning or motor incapacity. Maui Memorial Hospital estimates that the care required for babies who are born drug affected can cost more than $43,000 in the first month of life. A child suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome is estimated to cost society over $40,000 to prepare to attend school.

Additional costs associated with incarcerated women stem from the emotional trauma suffered by children separated from their incarcerated mothers. Studies indicate that separation increases a child's risk for later involvement in the criminal justice system by five hundred to six hundred per cent.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for two counselor positions on the island of Maui to treat women offenders qualifying for the drug court program.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $100,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2003-2004 and $100,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005 to hire two drug treatment counselors on Maui for the treatment of women drug-related offenders.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003.

INTRODUCED BY:

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