The Guam Department of Corrections leadership spent Wednesday in Saipan for preliminary discussions about housing inmates from Guam at the CNMI prison. Both islands’ leadership says plans will not advance without heavy community input.
Marianas leaders say plans to house some Guam inmates at Saipan’s prison are in the very early stages of discussion.
Stephanie Flores, Guam State Clearinghouse, said, "There will be no movement of inmates right away, number one. Number two, that will not happen unless the community in the CNMI is on board a hundred percent. And, you know, we want to make that very, very clear that we're you know, we're still very very early stages of discussions. We have a lot of questions. The commissioner has a lot of questions. Both governors have lots of questions. We understand that the legislature has a lot of questions, and this is good. And we want to make sure that the process is as transparent as possible."
Guam’s Stephanie Flores, DOC Director Fred Bordallo, and DYA Director Melanie Brennan meeting with CNMI Governor Arnold Palacios and DOC Commissioner Anthony Torres on Saipan to ask and answer those questions. Before any agreement is inked, they say they will hold community meetings, a public information campaign, and collaborate with local organizations to inform the plan.
Anthony Torres, CNMI DOC Commissioner, said, "This is an opportunity for us to help Guam. And it's an opportunity for us to push forward and move forward with the rehabilitative programs that I'd like to institute in our DOC."
"We are in a overcapacity situation right now. The director can give you more statistics, but the largest part of that population is pretrial detainees. And what's important to note is that population is not eligible to be housed anywhere other than Guam. Okay. So that large population is not on the table. Right. And so one of the things that we're doing right now, and the director is going to be moving this initiative forward, is we've developed a master plan for the new prison for Guam. And part of what we're doing here is also seeing the facility here, which we know conforms with all Department of Justice requirements and everything because it was built as a result of a consent decree.
"So we know it meets the right kind of qualifications and the right of security measures. And we want that to inform what we're doing as we construct a new facility so that we know what we need to do."
Guam’s prison population is at over 800 people. The CNMI prison has 200 inmates with a capacity of 500 people. They say any transfer would be of non-violent and low-risk inmates, which is about 100 people in Guam’s prison. Inmates transferred to Saipan will be brought back to Guam at the end of their sentence.
He said, "So the the process is being developed. We have a statute in place that tells us who we can transfer, where we can transfer, and how you can go about developing the procedures for voluntary transfers, those who want to go, who could be qualified to go and so and there will be a committee put in place."
"If they say if the situation would arise where they got written up a few times. Again, this is something that we're going to have to iron out in the contract, we get them on the plane and then back to Guam. And then those will be ironed out."
We asked Torres for his response to concerns about the capacity of the Saipan prison to take in more people amid litigation related to allegations of inadequate medical care and inhumane prison conditions on Saipan. "I take complete ownership for things that even isn’t really directly my fault, but we are doing our best in addressing those issues to include the medical concerns that are being brought, we are doing it," he said.
Torres says the safety of the inmates, staff, and community is a priority, adding, "I ask the community to have an open mind, to really just have an open mind and to continue to put their faith and trust in me…and we are going to find a way where this is beneficial for both of us."
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