Siege may hasten new prison

Alarmed by the hostage incident at the prison, the House of Representatives will ask Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to use his authority to contract a new jail facility through sole-sourcing in a bid to fast-track the urgent project.

A resolution is expected to be adopted by the House in a planned session today to put in place the mechanism as soon as possible, while the Senate is also set to pass an appropriation measure providing close to $10 million in both local and federal funds for the new prison.

House Speaker Diego T. Benavente said the resolution will urge the governor “to consider using his powers, whether its emergency or any powers, to grant the construction of this prison through sole-source or something that will immediately start its construction.”

While relieved by the outcome of the hostage, he stressed the need to begin the project now, saying the incident yesterday revealed problems of the existing facility in terms of treatment of the inmates.

The prison, administered by the Division of Corrections, has come under fire in recent years from the federal government due to alleged inhumane conditions and overcrowding.

The U.S. Department of Justice last month reached an agreement with the CNMI government to improve correctional and detention facilities, a deal that will require island officials to develop long and short-term plans to comply with its provisions.

Benavente maintained immediate construction of the new prison will help address the current situation, frowning on the proposal to improve the existing facility as provided under a pending legislation on capital improvement projects.

“I hope that it will not be necessary that if we were to immediately sign a contract with a firm to build this prison, then we do not spend and waste money to tap additional buildings that we are going to tear down after we build this facility,” he told in an interview after staying with Tenorio and other government officials during the 14-hour siege of the main detention center.

“There is a CIP bill but my concern is that whether or not we want to spend $7 million to basically kind of get us to compliance, and when we contract out to build the new prison, we are going to be tearing down this facility,” Benavente added.

Senate Floor leader Pete P. Reyes, meanwhile, said the upper house will pass the bill appropriating funds for the new prison which is separate from a list of other infrastructure projects included in the initial measure.

Both the House and the Senate may hold a back-to-back session today to vote on the proposed measure as agreed upon by legislative leaders to hasten the prison project, according to Reyes.

“We are going to take out the appropriation for the prison and we are going to approve that separately so we can get this thing going,” he said in an interview.

Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez echoed the need to pass the bill, saying “there is urgent need for the construction of prison and we are moving on that direction.”

The CIP bill has ran roughshod in the Senate since the House passed it last month as members are eyeing amendment to include projects in their respective legislative districts.