STAND. COM. REP. NO.  723-10

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2010

 

RE:   S.B. No. 2919

      S.D. 1

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2919, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII STATE HOSPITAL,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to provide security for the Hawaii State Hospital, the State's secure psychiatric rehabilitation facility located in Kaneohe, beginning September 1, 2010, and to require the Department of Health to report to the Legislature on appropriate security measures and short- and long-range plans for the security of the increasing and aging forensic population of the Hawaii State Hospital. 

 

     The Hawaii Government Employees' Association and a concerned individual testified in support of this bill.  The Department of Public Safety (PSD) opposed this measure. 

 

     The Hawaii State Hospital, which houses patients committed to institutionalization by the courts, has been experiencing numerous escapes and assaults on staff.  Your Committee recognizes the concerns of PSD that it does not have the appropriate staffing or financial resources to provide security at the Hawaii State Hospital, and that when PSD previously assigned security officers to the Hawaii State Hospital, the officers guarded the entrance and perimeter and were not responsible for preventing patient assaults on hospital staff inside the hospital.  Accordingly, your Committee has amended this bill by requiring PSD to support, but not provide, security for the Hawaii State Hospital.

 

     This bill has also been amended by:

 

(1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2025, to encourage further discussion; and

 

(2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2919, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2919, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Public Safety.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

RYAN I. YAMANE, Chair