Bill Text: HI HB2656 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Furlough; Overcrowding
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-11 - (H) The committee(s) recommends that the measure be deferred. [HB2656 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2010-HB2656-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2656 |
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TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO CORRECTIONS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. Work furlough is generally a transitional program for inmates who are near the end of their sentences. Furlough allows inmates to enter the community to work, to seek employment, or to gain job skills through work. These inmates have completed their in-facility programming and are ready to begin the transition from incarceration to freedom. As part of the sequential process of preparing inmates for release, the inmates leave the facility for the day and return at night. The furlough experience is important for the inmates to transition out of incarceration and to living in the community.
The legislature finds that the department of public safety lacks sufficient bed space to allow more inmates to be furloughed and to return to the correctional facility each night. The department of public safety has presented testimony to the legislature that at least two hundred more beds statewide are needed to meet the inmate demand for furlough.
The purpose of this Act is to authorize the department of public safety to allow an additional two hundred inmates to be furloughed statewide without returning to prison overnight, upon special conditions.
SECTION 2. Section 353-17, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§353-17 Committed persons, furlough, employment. (a) The director or a designated agent may grant furloughs to committed persons with a minimum or lower security classification in any correctional facility of the department for the purpose of employment, social reorientation, education, or training, or any other valid purpose as determined by the director. Special out-of-state furloughs may be granted to those already otherwise furloughed, at no cost to the State, when death or critical illness or injury to the committed person's immediate family including a reciprocal beneficiary, occurs. Any committed person who is engaged in private employment, by contract or otherwise, not under the immediate custody of the State shall not be considered an agent or employee of the State. Any moneys earned from employment by such person shall be used to satisfy a restitution order and to reimburse the State for the cost of room and board. If any earned moneys remain after these expenses have been paid, that amount shall be held in an individual account for the committed person.
When an inmate is granted a special out-of-state furlough, the director shall inform the authorities of the state to which the inmate is to be furloughed of the inmate's arrival.
(b) If a particular facility does not have sufficient furlough bed space to accommodate a committed person who is deemed suitable for furlough, the director or a designated agent may grant furlough consistent with the usual terms and conditions of furlough but without the requirement that the committed person return to the correctional facility overnight; provided that every committed person to be furloughed under this subsection shall, at minimum:
(1) Have a residence or a living arrangement on the same island to return to each night while on furlough;
(2) Be deemed a non-violent offender that presently does not have a propensity for violence;
(3) Have a support group of three persons, none of whom shall have been convicted of a felony, who shall register with the department and shall provide assistance in reintegrating the committed person into society;
(4) Be subject to random drug testing; and
(5) Report in person to a parole officer not less than once bi-weekly; and
provided further that as an additional condition of furlough, the committed person who is furloughed under this subsection shall be employed or shall seek employment with a minimum of two employers per week, or be registered in school or a learning program approved by the department; and provided further that the total number of inmates to be furloughed under this subsection shall not exceed two hundred.
Failure to comply with any condition of furlough under this subsection shall subject the committed person to a retake and re-incarceration of up to sixty days, notwithstanding subsection (d); provided that subsection (d) shall apply if conditions of furlough other than those included in this subsection are not met.
[(b)] (c) Full power to enforce
the terms and conditions of furlough and to retake and reincarcerate a
furloughed committed person is conferred upon the director or designated
agent. The director or a designated agent, at any time, may issue a warrant
authorizing the arrest and return to actual custody of any furloughed committed
person for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not the terms and conditions
of furlough have been violated so as to justify revoking the furlough and to
retake and reincarcerate the furloughed committed person. The administrators
of all of the correctional facilities of the State, the chief of police of each
county, all police officers of the State, and all correctional facility
officials shall execute any such warrant of arrest in like manner as an
ordinary criminal process.
[(c)] (d) Any furloughed
committed person retaken and reincarcerated as provided in this chapter shall
be confined according to the committed person's sentence for that portion of
the committed person's term remaining unserved at the time of furlough, but
subsequent furloughs, in the discretion of the director or designated agent,
may be granted to a committed person during the life and in respect of
sentence."
SECTION 3. The department of public safety shall report to the legislature semi-annually, beginning December 1, 2010, on the:
(1) Number of inmates furloughed under this Act and at which correctional facilities; and
(2) Problems and issues, if any, concerning the inmates furloughed under this Act.
SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Furlough; Overcrowding
Description:
Allows department of public safety to parole up to an additional 200 inmates who do not have to return to prison each night and upon special conditions if the prison has insufficient number of beds to accommodate more furloughed inmates. Requires DPS to report to legislature semi-annually.
The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
