Bill Text: HI HB2516 | 2022 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Relating To Correctional Facilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-02-10 - Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on JHA with Representative(s) Kong voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Holt, Okimoto voting no (2) and Representative(s) McDermott excused (1). [HB2516 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HB2516-Amended.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2516 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022 |
H.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State has spent more than five years and at least $10,000,000 planning a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional center. However, the State has not included the relevant stakeholders or broader community in the planning process in a meaningful way despite strong and persistent recommendations to do so by the House Concurrent Resolution 85 Task Force on Prison Reform and the Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission.
Engaging the community in the jail planning process is widely recognized as a best practice and essential to creating a successful jail that meets the needs of the community. As the National Institute of Corrections has said, jails are not solely the concern of the governmental agencies and officials who run the jails; jails belong to the community and reflect the values of the community of which the jails are a part. Therefore, the community must be involved in the planning of new jails.
Community stakeholders provide aggregate knowledge, skills, intuition, insights, and wisdom necessary for solving collective challenges. Using this wisdom may shape the type of questions that are asked, challenge prevailing norms, and bring about unexpected insights that lead to innovative and transformative solutions.
The legislature further finds that the State has not followed a "systems approach" to jail planning. Systems planning, as set out in the National Institute of Corrections' Jail Capacity Planning Guide: A Systems Approach (2009), is a best practice and is essential to building an appropriately sized jail and managing jail populations on a long-term basis. The systems approach shifts the nature of jail planning from simply making population forecasts based on past trends and the assumption that the policies driving the jail population will remain unchanged, to developing a continuum of options for law enforcement and judges in which jails are only one option among many, that should be used sparingly and as a last resort. The systems approach calls on planners to "plan as much for programs as they do for [jail] beds."
Systems planning examines the policies and practices that drive the jail population and addresses these policies and practices in ways that reduce the jail population without compromising public safety. Research by the Vera Institute of Justice has shown that the failure of planners to address the policies and practices that lead to jail population increases creates a vicious cycle in which the new jails created to reduce overcrowding rapidly fill to capacity, creating a demand for more capacity, and precipitating a costly building cycle.
Reducing and effectively managing jail populations are important because jails are extremely expensive to build and maintain. In 2018 the department of public safety and department of accounting and general services estimated that building a new jail to replace the Oahu community correctional center would cost approximately $525,000,000. However, this estimate is no longer accurate due to significant cost increases in the State's construction industry. This new jail is likely to cost approximately $1,000,000,000, or roughly $770,000 per bed for the one thousand three hundred-bed facility.
The department of public safety and department of accounting and general services plan to use a public-private partnership to plan, design, finance, construct, and maintain the new jail. The legislature finds that while public-private partnerships may be appropriate to deliver some types of public infrastructure, these partnerships are not appropriate for jails because jail planning requires highly transparent planning, design, financing, construction, and management, and public participation that simply cannot be achieved through a public-private partnership.
On January 3, 2022, the Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission called on the State to stop the planned issuance of a request for qualifications and a request for proposals to build a new Oahu community correctional center through a public-private partnership. The Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission noted that the jail now being planned is too big and too expansive and will perpetuate a punitive model for the State's correctional system.
The Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission has also called for government officials and a broad range of community stakeholders, including the agencies that provide health, housing, and employment services to the community; formerly incarcerated individuals; representatives of cultural groups that reflect the justice-involved population; victim advocates; and individuals with knowledge and expertise in various aspects of the justice system, to collaborate on a jail that will meet the needs of the community.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to incorporate community concerns in the development of a public-private partnership for a new jail in a county having a population in excess of five hundred thousand.
SECTION 2. Chapter 353, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§353- In-state
correctional facilities; engagement of the Hawaii correctional system oversight
commission required. Notwithstanding section 353-16.35 or
353-16.36 or any other law to the contrary, no department, agency, board,
commission, or employee of the State shall:
(1) Expend moneys
or take any action to create a public‑private partnership to plan for, design,
finance, develop, or construct a new jail in a county having a population in excess
of five hundred thousand;
(2) Issue, publish,
circulate, or solicit a request for qualifications from any private entity related
to the private entity's ability to plan for, design, finance, develop, or
construct a new jail in a county having a population in excess of five hundred thousand;
(3) Issue, publish,
circulate, or solicit a request for proposals to plan for, design, finance, develop,
or construct a new jail in a county having a population in excess of five hundred
thousand; or
(4) Enter into a contract
with any entity, as part of a public-private partnership, to plan for, develop,
finance, design, or construct a new jail in a county having a population in excess
of five hundred thousand,
unless the Hawaii correctional system oversight commission established pursuant to section 353L-1 participates as a full partner in the planning, design, financing, development, and construction of the facility."
SECTION 3. Section 353-16.35, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
"(a) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, and except as provided by section 353- , the governor, with the assistance of the director, may negotiate with any person for the development or expansion of private in-state correctional facilities or public in-state turnkey correctional facilities to reduce prison overcrowding; provided that if an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement is required for a proposed site or for the expansion of an existing correctional facility under section 343-5, then notwithstanding the time periods specified for public review and comments under section 343-5, the governor shall accept public comments for a period of sixty days following public notification of either an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement."
SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for the Hawaii correctional system oversight commission to fulfill its duties pursuant to this Act, including activities to engage with the public to ensure that community concerns are received and considered by the commission.
The sum appropriated shall be expended by the Hawaii correctional system oversight commission for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 5. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000; provided that section 4 shall take effect on July 1, 2022.
Report Title:
Department of Public Safety; Hawaii Correctional Systems Oversight Commission; New Jail; Appropriation
Description:
Prohibits any planning, design, financing, development, or construction of a new jail in a county having a population in excess of five hundred thousand unless the Hawaii correctional systems oversight commission participates as a full partner in the planning, design, financing, development, and construction of the facility. Appropriates moneys. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
