Bill Text: HI SCR31 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Requesting The Women's Corrections Implementation Commission To Develop A Strategy And Make Recommendations To Reduce The Number Of Women Incarcerated At The Women's Community Correctional Center By Twenty-five Percent Over The Next Five Years.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2024-04-05 - Referred to CMV, FIN, referral sheet 27 [SCR31 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-SCR31-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	31
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

Requesting the Women's Corrections Implementation Commission to develop a strategy and make recommendations to reduce the number of women incarcerated at the women's community correctional center by twenty-five percent over the next five years.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, transforming the State's prison system from a punitive to a rehabilitative model is a priority of this body; and

 

     WHEREAS, this body has given specific programmatic attention to women in the criminal justice system; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Legislature adopted House Concurrent Resolution No. 85, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, Regular Session of 2016, which requested the establishment of a task force to study effective incarceration policies in Hawaii and other jurisdictions; and

 

     WHEREAS, the final report of the task force stated that "the current model of prisons in Hawaii reinforces institutionalized thinking and thought patterns and re-traumatizes women"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the final report emphasized that "[w]omen should be placed in community-based programs as soon as possible after incarceration" because "being part of a community and learning to navigate that community reinforces the reality that there is something beyond incarceration,"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the final report also highlighted the differences between women and men offenders and found that women offenders "tend to have a history of physical and/or sexual abuse" and that their "involvement in criminal activity is often motivated by poverty and/or substance abuse, and they are less likely than men to have been convicted of a violent crime"; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the 2023 Annual Report of the Criminal Justice Research Institute, roughly 86.5 percent of women at the Women's Community Correctional Center had no violent offenses under the Women's Corrections Implementation Commission's definition of "violent offense"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Legislature specifically recognized the differences between women and men in the criminal justice system when it established the Women's Corrections Implementation Commission under Act 244, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022, to, among other things, "[d]evelop and implement an evidence-based, gender-responsive plan to divert non-violent women offenders, especially those with minor children, from the criminal justice system"; and

 

     WHEREAS, there has been little progress diverting non-violent women offenders from prison as the recidivism rate remains at fifty percent and the population at the Women's Community Correctional Center remains at approximately two hundred, a nine hundred fifty percent increase since 1978 when only nineteen women were incarcerated there; and

 

     WHEREAS, the lack of progress diverting women from the criminal justice system can be traced to two failings:  the lack of a definite, measurable goal by which to reduce the number of incarcerated women and a lack of resources allocated to proven community-based rehabilitative programs; and

 

     WHEREAS, there is a need in the State to establish policy changes regarding probation, parole, and restitution; set measurable goals to reduce the number of incarcerated women; and provide sufficient resources to community-based programs to include mental health counseling, drug and alcohol treatment, education, and job training; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2024, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Women's Corrections Implementation Commission is requested to develop a strategy and make recommendations to reduce the number of women incarcerated at the Women's Community Correctional Center by twenty-five percent by 2029; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, in developing a strategy and making recommendations, the Women's Corrections Implementation Commission is requested to work with the Judiciary, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of Human Services, Department of Health, Department of Education, Office of the State Public Defender, Hawaii Paroling Authority, each county police department and county prosecuting attorney, and community-based organizations; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Women's Corrections Implementation Commission is requested to submit:

 

     (1)  An initial report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than November 1, 2024; and

 

     (2)  Subsequent reports of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Sessions of 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2029; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Administrative Director of the Courts, Director of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Director of Human Services, Director of Health, Superintendent of Education, State Public Defender, Chairperson of the Hawaii Paroling Authority, Chiefs of Police of each county, and Prosecuting Attorneys of each county.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

 

 

Report Title: 

Incarcerated Women; Reduction; Women's Corrections Implementation Commission