SB 2964 Summary

• Implements penal code reforms recommended by a 29-member judicial council committee, addressing fairness and proportionality of criminal offenses and punishments across multiple Hawaii statutes.

• Increases felony theft thresholds from $300 to $750 for theft in the second degree and from $100 to $250 for theft in the third degree to reflect inflation since 1986, while expanding habitual property crime perpetrator definitions to include a 10-year look-back period.

• Limits methamphetamine trafficking charges to manufacturing or distribution to minors, allowing other methamphetamine offenses to be prosecuted as promotion of dangerous drugs with sentencing discretion for probation and drug treatment.

• Establishes priority payment schedule for defendants ordered to make multiple payments (restitution first, followed by crime victim compensation fee, probation fees, other fees, and fines), and requires restitution collection from incarcerated defendants notwithstanding contrary law.

• Amends sexual assault and family abuse provisions to eliminate married couple exemptions, clarify definitions of "family or household member" to exclude adult roommates in purely economic arrangements, and establish new felony offense of resisting order to stop motor vehicle with reckless driving.