Vote NO on HI HB 2514     Contact HI Senators via email and phone and politely ask them to vote NO on HB 2514. There are only 25 Senators to contact. Quick access to their email addresses http://dogsupporter.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/please-email-these-senators-and-say-no-to-hb2514-save-the-bail-system/   Please email only 5 Senators at a time or spam filters may prevent your email from going though.  Senators’ phone numbers can be found here http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/members/legislators.aspx?chamber=S     HB 2514 is entitled “A Bill For An Act Relating to Public Safety”.  At first thought you think “Oh, public safety that’s great”, but if you read the bill it may more appropriately be entitled something else like, “Public Safety at Risk Due to Pretrial Process”.  It promotes the speedy release of people in jail and will be used as a solution to reduce jail overcrowding. Resulting in unsafe communities and higher rates of Failure To Appear in court at a cost to the taxpayer.     Unfortunately, HB 2514 passed the House March 6 2012, but not without some opposition and reservations. It is now on its way to the Senate. Here are a few problems the House found with the bill and some other negative points:     1)      Pretrial release process. One problem of pretrial release is that it is an INTERNAL process done by the court itself. Risk Assessment workers are under pressure from their own agency to release people from jail.     See this video for more details of how pretrial release was/is corrupted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYcQCflSqxA The whole arena of the pretrial process has been studied and is a dangerous and failed system funded by taxpayers’ money.     2)      The bill requires a Pretrial Risk Assessment (evaluation) to be done within 3 days of admission to a correctional facility. Professional testimony was given that 3 days is not enough time and nothing is mentioned in the bill what happens if it takes longer than 3 days. The bill mentions using a “validated risk assessment” to evaluate if a prisoner gets released or not.     Certainly the “validated risk assessments” currently in existence with pretrial release are not effective given the high rate of failure to appear.     3)      Section 7 of the bill strips the parole board’s authority and puts into the statutes a 6 month limitation on paroled prisoners with no new felony offense.     That means the prisoner violated parole, is back in prison, and will be confined for no more than 6 months maximum. Given the way the bill is drafted the parolee does not have to cooperate to be released. The bill has several sections written to put time limits on incarceration.     4)      Section 13 of HB 2514 changes HI statutes from “prisoner release upon expiration of maximum term” to “supervised parole release PRIOR to expiration of the maximum term” released anywhere from 6-18 months early.      5)      Section 10 another negative in the bill allows 25% of a prisoner’s money in their inmate facility account to be deducted monthly to pay restitution. This is a money grab. The inmate’s immediate family - mother, father, grandmother, child, brother  -  deposits money to the inmate’s account to pay for basic necessities like food items, snacks, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, stationary and stamps. Money grabbing these deposits to pay restitution results in the taxpayer having to pay for those basic necessities and further enables the prisoner. He hasn’t paid the restitution his family has.     House Rep. Kymberly Pine, victims’ advocate, said “no amount of restitution puts the victims at ease”. A victim feels some sense of relief from knowing their offender is incarcerated.     6)      HB 2514 is broad, general, and vague. Specific language is needed, for example, “Only genuine first time offenders and offenders who have not been on bond for the past 5 years are eligible for a pretrial release bond.” Right now low lying misdemeanors are eligible for pretrial bonds, including: 3rd degree assaults, burglary, theft, domestic violence, harassments, threats.       7)      Sections 14 and 15 BIG money grab from the General Revenues of the State for fiscal year 2012-2013 in creating new positions and services within The Department of Public Safety in the state and counties and increasing the number of members of the Hawaii Paroling Authority. Have you seen the list of positions? Create more government, yet strip the parole board’s authority and fill the state and county positions with people who have no experience.     Why spend more money to create more government jobs – funded by taxpayers – for an ineffective system?  Vote NO HB 2514.