Report Title:

Correctional Treatment Facilities; Private Developed Facility.

Description:

Directs the executive branch to prepare preliminary design and request for proposals for the design, development, and operation of a correctional treatment facility and to consider the undeveloped portion on the existing Halawa correctional facility as one possible site for the facility. (HB2864 HD2)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2864

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

H.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State can no longer afford to postpone the construction of correctional facilities. As overcrowding continues, the State is placed in a vulnerable position of being subject to charges of civil rights violations and to security risks.

Since 1995, the department of public safety has been transporting prisoners to facilities in Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Minnesota, Arizona, and Tennessee. Although this is a temporary solution until adequate facilities are built, the State cannot afford to transport inmates to mainland facilities indefinitely.

Out-of-state placements cost approximately $24,400,000 per year, or $56 per prisoner per day for care, custody, transportation, inmate compensation, and health care. This arrangement has not been problem-free. For example, at the mainland facilities, there have been allegations of sexual assault of female prisoners, denial of timely medical treatment, and civil rights violations. Further, the lack of close-by family support, which is an integral part of any successful re-entry into local society, hinders rehabilitation.

The legislature further finds that a great majority of all prisoners incarcerated by the State have committed crimes relating to drug and substance-abuse laws or engaged in other crimes to support existing drug and substance-abuse habits. Simple incarceration without treatment will only lead to recidivism and magnify the problem rather than lead to a reduction of the scourge of drug and substance abuse.

Accordingly, the legislature finds that it is in the public interest that a new correctional facility emphasizing programs that will address, as a priority, the provision of treatment programs for substance-abuse and mental health treatment be designed and built. This facility should be sized to house one thousand to one thousand two hundred inmates in intensive drug- and substance-abuse and other mental health treatment.

One of the sites the legislature would like to have considered for this correctional treatment facility is the undeveloped portion of the site of the Halawa correctional facility. However, other sites that may be more appropriate or economically feasible should also be considered.

The purpose of this Act is to direct the executive branch to initiate the planning and design process to develop a correctional treatment facility to house one thousand to one thousand two hundred inmates on the undeveloped portion of the site of the Halawa correctional facility or other appropriate site, proposed by the director of public safety.

SECTION 2. (a) Within ninety days of the effective date of this Act, the director of public safety shall enter into a contract with certified or accredited correctional design professionals for the planning and preliminary design for a one thousand to one thousand two hundred bed correctional treatment facility. The correctional treatment facility shall be a secure correctional facility designed to provide intensive in-house rehabilitation programs for the treatment of chemical dependency and abuse and other mental health problems.

(b) The correctional treatment facility shall be designed to be operated by the State or a private operator with the ability to provide a total continuum of programs addressing education, prevention, and treatment, directed at achieving the prevention of drug and substance abuse and the resolution of other mental health problems. If a private operator is to be selected, it shall have prior successful experience in managing facilities accredited by the American Correctional Association and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

(c) By February 1, 2005, the director of public safety shall report to the legislature, including in the report the following:

(1) The preliminary design and projected cost of the correctional treatment facility, which shall be designed to be accredited by the American Correctional Association;

(2) If the facility is to be developed by a private developer, a proposed request for proposals for the private development of the facility for the State on a turn-key basis;

(3) If the facility is to be operated by a private operator, a proposed request for proposals for the operation of the correctional treatment facility by a private operator, who has experience in the successful operation of facilities accredited by the American Correctional Association and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations;

(4) A prioritized list of suitable sites, including the undeveloped portion of the Halawa correctional facility site and other public lands and private property, along with the estimated cost of acquisition, the costs for site preparation, and the cost for the provision of all necessary infrastructure to support the proposed facility;

(5) A proposal for the financing of the acquisition of the turn-key completed facility, including the use of general obligation bonds, special purpose revenue bonds, tax-exempted project revenue bonds, certificates of participation, or other forms of financing; and

(6) Any proposed legislation required for the implementation of the final design, construction, purchase, and operation of the correctional treatment facility.

SECTION 3. This Act shall not be construed to prohibit the governor from negotiating or contracting with any person for the development of other in-state correctional facilities pursuant to sections 353-16.35 and 353-16.36, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

SECTION 4. The director of public safety, with the assistance of the department of business, economic development, and tourism, shall prepare a feasibility and planning study for the future use, disposition, or development of the existing Oahu community correctional center site. This feasibility and planning study shall include the opportunity for public review and comment by the surrounding community, prior to its completion.

SECTION 5. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance, as of June 30, 2004, of the appropriation for Program Item 4A.20025 General Administration, New Secure Treatment Facility, Hawaii, contained in program area PSD900 - GENERAL ADMINISTRATION of Section 91, Part IV, Act 259, Session Laws of Hawaii 2001, as amended by Act 3, Third Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2001, as amended by Act 177, Session Laws of Hawaii 2002, for the planning for a new secure treatment facility on Hawaii is appropriated on July 1, 2004, for fiscal year 2004-2005, for the purposes of this Act.

The sum appropriated by this Act shall be expended by the department of public safety.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2010.