Bill Text: HI SB43 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

---

Bill Title: Public Safety; Access to Records; Out-of-State Prisons

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB43 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB43-Amended.html

---

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 26

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 43

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 43 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that contracts made directly between the State and a nongovernmental entity or through interstate compacts that provide for the incarceration or detention of state prisoners or detainees in a privately owned prison or out-of-state detention facility require the state and contractor to provide access to the same information as required under the state Uniform Information Practices Act.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from two state agencies, one employee union, six community groups, and eight individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one state department.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure is necessary because the State has contracted with a private entity to provide an essential public service that protects the public safety.  In doing so, your Committee believes that the State should have access to the records of the contractor, which testimony indicates has been difficult to discuss in the past.

 

     The intent of this measure is to bring into the realm of public information and scrutiny the records held by private entities housing Hawaii inmates pursuant to contracts with the State.  However, those records are only as good as they are legitimate and authentic.  This measure is not intended to apply to corporate information of the contractor that may place the contractor at a disadvantage with competitors.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure to require that the State's contract with the contractor contains a provision to provide access to the State to review all records of the contractor relating to daily prison operations and prison finances of the contractor as these records relate to Hawaii prisoners and detainees held by that prison or facility.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 43, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 43, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

 

		____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair