STAND. COM. REP. NO. 288

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1305

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 S.B. No. 1305 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS TO THE COUNTY OF KAUAI OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds as a grant-in-aid to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of the County of Kauai for the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit and Victim Witness Assistance Program.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Crime Victim Compensation Commission, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney City and County of Honolulu, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney County of Kauai, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney County of Maui, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney County of Hawaii, and Kauai Police Department.

     Your Committees find that the Career Criminal Prosecution Program addresses the issue of career criminals, and the Victim-Witness Assistance Program provides information, assistance, and support services to the victims of and witnesses to crimes.  These programs provide worthy services to the citizens of the County of Kauai.  However, funding for the programs has been significantly reduced in recent years.  Implementation of this measure provides the necessary resources to protect the public from career criminals and further assures that victims and witnesses are supported through the judicial process.

     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 S.B. No. 1305 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