Bill Text: HI HB2798 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Hawaii Veterans Court; Appropriation

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-1)

Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2012-04-27 - (H) Conference Committee Meeting will reconvene on Friday 04-27-12 5:35PM in conference room 312. [HB2798 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-HB2798-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3350

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2798

       H.D. 3

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2798, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A VETERANS TREATMENT COURT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a temporary Veterans Treatment Court to be administered by a circuit court judge of the first judicial circuit.

 

     Additionally, this measure:

 

     (1)  Authorizes the Judiciary to establish four temporary positions for the purpose of implementing the temporary Veterans Treatment Court;

 

     (2)  Appropriates funds for staffing, equipment, and other expenses for the implementation and operation of the temporary Veterans Treatment Court; and

 

     (3)  Requires the Judiciary to submit a plan of implementation for the temporary Veterans Treatment Court to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Judiciary, and the Office of the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu.  Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu.

 

     Your Committee finds that the State's prison system is severely overcrowded and that further alternatives to incarceration are needed, including the provision of appropriate treatment, counseling, and more intensive supervision.  Successful intervention by the temporary Veterans Treatment Court is expected to have a long-term positive impact on prison overcrowding, the costs of high rates of incarceration, public safety, probation and parole workloads, and case flow through the judicial system.  Your Committee notes that it has received the Judiciary's plan of implementation for the temporary Veterans Treatment Court.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting Part IV of the measure, which requires the Judiciary to submit a plan of implementation for the temporary Veterans Treatment Court to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2798, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2798, H.D. 3, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair