§706-672  Place of imprisonment.  When a
person is sentenced to imprisonment, the court shall commit the person to the
custody of the department of public safety for the term of the person's
sentence and until released in accordance with law.  The director of public
safety shall determine the proper program of redirection and any place of
confinement of the committed person. [L 1972, c 9, pt of §1; am L 1983, c 182,
§1; L 1987, c 338, §10; am L 1989, c 211, §8; gen ch 1993]



 



COMMENTARY ON §706-672



 



  This section is substantially in accord with prior law. 
H.R.S. §711-83 (as codified prior to this Code) provided that felons be
committed to the custody of the director of the department of social services
and housing for placement within the correctional facilities of the
department.  Although there was no specific statutory direction that persons
imprisoned for misdemeanors shall be incarcerated in county jails,[1] this was
the usual practice.



 



SUPPLEMENTAL COMMENTARY ON §706-672



 



  In enacting the Code, the Legislature added to §672(1) of the
Proposed Draft the last sentence which allows the court to determine the
initial place of confinement.  The Conference Committee Report states that
"the Director of the Department of Social Services and Housing shall determine
the proper program of redirection and any subsequent place of confinement best
suited to meet the individual needs of the committed person."  Conference
Committee Report No. 2 (1972) (emphasis added).  The committee also put its
gloss on the word "institution," appearing in subsection (2), by
stating its "intent that 'institution' refers to any detention or
correctional facility other than Oahu prison."  Id.



  Act 182, Session Laws 1983, amended this section to authorize
the director of social services to determine a convicted person's place of
confinement.  Under prior law, courts determined the initial place of
confinement for convicted persons with indeterminate prison terms and also
determined the permanent place of confinement for convicted persons with
definite prison terms.  Because of that law, convicted persons were sometimes
inappropriately housed due to the court's commitment or the prisoner's
subsequent behavior.  By amending this section, the director is able to place
convicted persons in the most appropriate program and is better able to use the
department's resources to provide for the safety of other prisoners and the
department's staff.  Senate Standing Committee Report No. 722, House Standing
Committee Report No. 419.



 



Case Notes



 



  Nothing in the federal or the state constitution or the state
statutory law entitles prisoner to a hearing in connection with the prisoner's
transfer to a mainland prison.  63 H. 138, 621 P.2d 976.



 



__________



§706-672 Commentary:



 



1.  But cf. H.R.S. §710-12, which reads in part:  "The
magistrate may direct, as one of the terms and conditions of such suspension of
sentence, periodical or intermittent confinement of such person in jail or his
attendance at a traffic course or school prescribed by the magistrate."