Panel draws up prison plan

A government body tasked to map out a comprehensive jail management in the Northern Marianas is hoping to complete a plan on the new prison aimed to ease overcrowding in the existing facility and help stave off the spate of jailbreaks in recent months.

Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, head of the prison task force formed last year by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, said they expect to break ground on the proposed $17 million jail within six months to hasten upgrade of conditions for close to a hundred inmates on the island.

“The task force is under the direction of the governor to speed up things and we have done so,” he said in an interview.

Likewise, the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday reached an agreement with the CNMI to improve correctional and detention facilities here, which it denounced as unsafe and unsanitary as well as failing to meet constitutional standards.

The move came on the heels of alarming jailbreaks in the past 10 months, including the recent escape of eight convicted criminals who are serving sentences for murder, robbery, child molestation and other serious offenses.

According to Hofschneider, the current facility being run by the Division of Corrections is not designed to hold the current number of prisoners and the conditions are not up to human standards.

“We understand that they have to serve out the sentence but there are some conditions that we are supposed to be providing that would minimize a lot of these things, particularly the jailbreak” he said.

The task force is set to dismantle the halfway house where convicts with less serious offenses are serving their court sentence. An appropriation amounting to $1.1 million has been set aside to relocate the structure and accommodate a substance abuse program for exiting prisoners.

Hofschneider said the current structure — an alternative to long-term incarceration — remains a “hazard,” adding the government is expected to sign a contract with a winning bidder to build the new facility within the next few days.

Prison planner needed: CNMI will also have to hire a prison planner to assess and formulate a plan that will incorporate recommendations of the legislature, the judiciary and the Attorney General’s Office on the prison system in the commonwealth.

“A planner will compile all these information for us, working on our behalf so that we can, with good certainty, come up with a number of cells … or a set of standards (which) will be all conformed to the expected new prison facility,” the representative pointed out.

The task force also must meet with some U.S. agencies to consider the needs of the federally-funded programs on the island, such as the substance abuse rehabilitation program before drafting a definite prison plan.

“As much as possible we would like to break ground tomorrow but it would be really wrong to approach the permanent facility in an accelerated pace to the extent that we forget to talk to federal agencies,” Hofschneider said.

An appropriation measure passed by the House of Representatives and pending with the Senate has allocated some $8.84 million under the capital improvement projects to undertake the jail’s initial construction phase.

The amount includes funding for the adult prison, crime lab, immigration detention facility and juvenile facility. The total project cost will reach more than $17 million.

Hofschneider said construction will begin as soon as a prison planner gets on board. “The facility should conform to issues surrounding our existing facility,” he added.

In April last year, the Justice department investigated six correctional and detention facilities on Saipan, Tinian and Rota and found them below the acceptable conditions.

Agreement between CNMI and Justice department

In the accord filed in U.S. district court on Saipan for approval, these allegations have been resolved, but it will require the CNMI to develop short and long-term plans for complying with the deal as well as running the facilities, according to a DOJ statement released from Washington.

“The CNMI will also develop and implement new policies and procedure, create a classification system to segregate dangerous and special needs inmates, and ensure that employees are properly trained in corrections practices and staffed to secure the facility and respond to emergencies,” the department said.

Under the terms of agreement, the island government will also adhere to fire and safety codes, provide livable conditions for inmates, promote sanitary measures in food handling as well as secure medical screening and health standards for prisoners and improve security within the facility.

The department said CNMI may terminate the agreement after two years by which the U.S. government will have access to all documents and facilities to evaluate whether it is complying with the deal.