Bill Text: HI SB1308 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

---

Bill Title: Corrections; Involuntary Medical Treatment

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB1308 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB1308-Amended.html

---

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 279

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1308

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1308 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORRECTIONS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Public Safety to order an inmate or detainee in its custody to receive involuntary treatment, including the taking or application of medication, upon specified findings of a court order and upon procedural requirements.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one state department.

 

     Your Committees find that current law is silent on any authority of the Department of Public Safety to require an inmate to receive psychological treatment, including the administration of medication.  Under this measure, involuntary medical treatment may be ordered by the court if the court finds that: the subject poses a danger of physical harm to self or others; treatment with medication is medically appropriate; and considering less intrusive alternatives, the treatment is essential to forestall the danger posed by the subject.

 

     The intent of your Committees is to improve the care of individuals who suffer from mental illness within the State's correctional system and to more efficiently provide needed care to detainees and inmates who refuse recommended treatment when their mental health is a reason for that refusal.  Your Committees note that this measure intends to provide necessary constitutional safeguards, including the right to representation by counsel or by a public defender.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1308, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1308, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

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

 

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair