Torres tours Saipan prison

Lt. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres toured the Department of Correction on Friday to check on the inmates and discuss a new vocational program that would transition them into the workforce and back into society.

Torres toured the facility with Corrections Commissioner Robert A. Guerrero, staff, and other Correction officials and a counselor overseeing the new vocational program.

Torres said the vocational program is an “excellent foundation” for inmates who will soon be released and provides hope for their families.

According to Guerrero, the program is about a year-and-half long and is being implemented with the help of the Northern Marianas Technical Institute, through which inmates will be taught certified vocational skills.

Guerrero said inmates who will soon be released will be given a three-month “furlough” period. During those 90 days, the inmates will be placed at a job for six days out of a week, Thursday to Tuesday.

Guerrero assured that inmates will be monitored by officers and any infraction will result in the furlough being revoked immediately.

Corrections plans to start the program with electrical training. Inmates have also expressed an interest in culinary arts. The program is on a volunteer-basis, according to Corrections.

“Of course, it’s a risk,” Torres told reporters on Friday. “But if the community gives that support, it’s definitely a start.” He noted that program participants are “non-violent” inmates.

“We do need the community to support the program. …We are trying to better our society,” he said.

Guerrero, for his part, said in-mates are also “our brothers and sister, and close relatives.

“We have a lot of recidivists here. And the reason being, when they get released they have nothing to go out there to. They don’t have a job and, of course, they go back to their old ways and end up back here. When they get released, hopefully they will realize what they did wrong and build their lives from there.”

Torres’ informational visit on Friday ties into the economic plan he promised to refine in a speech at the Saipan Rotary Club last week. Torres said in that speech that the administration would outline its vision for a Commonwealth of “shared opportunity” in the coming months and asked for the support of the community.