STAND. COM. REP. NO. 998

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1005

       H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1005, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE VETERANS TREATMENT COURT,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds as a grant-in-aid to the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu for the Veterans Treatment Court.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary; Department of Defense; Office of Veterans Services; Veterans Advisory Board; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu; Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition; Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Hawaii; and two individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that the Veterans Treatment Court provides critical services to the State's citizens, including minimizing recidivism.  Money spent on this program is an efficient use of resources as the Veterans Treatment Court provides the State's veterans with support services and swift and effective justice, lessens caseloads and long court delays, and reduces recidivism.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1005, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Labor,

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

 

________________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair