STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2925

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.R. No. 90

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Public Safety and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Government Operations, to which was referred S.R. No. 90 entitled:

 

"SENATE RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE HAWAII PAROLING AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH A HOPE PAROLE PILOT PROGRAM,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to request the Hawaii Paroling Authority to establish a two-year pilot project similar to the Judiciary's probation modification project, Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, or HOPE.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from three private entities and thirteen individuals.  Comments were received from one branch of government.  Testimony in opposition was received from one state department.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     This measure also requests, among other things, that:

 

(1)  The two-year pilot parole modification project consist of no more than thirty parolees who are considered to be at high risk of violating the conditions of their parole; and

 

(2)  The Hawaii Paroling Authority make a preliminary report to the Legislature no later than December 1, 2011, and a final report no later than December 1, 2012, on specified information.

 

     In 2004, the Circuit Court of the First Circuit launched a probation modification project, also known as Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, or HOPE.  In a one-year, randomized controlled trial comparing HOPE probationers to probationers in a control group, HOPE probationers were fifty-five per cent less likely to be arrested for a new crime, seventy-two per cent less likely to use drugs, sixty-one per cent less likely to skip appointments with their supervisory officer, and fifty-three per cent less likely to have their probation revoked.  As a result of their improved progress, the HOPE probationers involved in the controlled trial served or were sentenced to, on average, forty-eight per cent fewer days of incarceration than probationers in the control group.  This measure is an effort to establish a comparable HOPE program to the parole system.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Specifying that the two-year pilot parole modification project consist of not more than thirty parolees to be chosen by the Hawaii Paroling Authority, and deleting reference to "high risk" in relation to the inmates in the program;

 

(2)  Deleting the reference to "weekly" in relation to the frequency of randomized drug testing; and

 

(3)  Requesting the State Attorney General and the HOPE Program of the Judiciary to assist the Department of Public Safety to gather and record information for purposes of the reports to the Legislature.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety and Military Affairs and Judiciary and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 90, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.R. No. 90, S.D. 1.

 

 

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

 

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair		____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair