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House panel to investigate prison chaos
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Posted on Mar 24 1999
The House committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations is set to investigate the Department of Public Safety in the wake of recent incidents in the prison, including a spate of jailbreaks and a 14-hour siege staged by inmates that heavily damaged the facility.
An oversight hearing on public safety concerns is scheduled on April 14 at the House chamber, but committee chair Rep. Frank G. Cepeda said it still depends on whether the public is going to support the inquiry.
“I want the public to air their concerns first about the DPS, particularly the community’s safety, before we undertake the oversight,” he told in an interview after announcing the plan yesterday.
A town meeting has been scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. at the Multi-Purpose Building in a prelude to the investigation to ask residents for their views about the current performance of DPS officials in maintaining peace and order on the island.
Cepeda, however, seemed unclear on the purpose of the oversight, saying only that he still needs to find out what the public wants to know regarding operations and problems at the department.
Public Safety Commissioner Charles W. Ingram may be summoned to appear before the panel to shed light on alarming cases of jailbreaks in the past few months as well as alleged deplorable conditions in the Division of Corrections.
According to Cepeda, the committee will review several documents submitted by DPS as part of its inquiry.
The department has come under fire in recent weeks following the prison standoff early this month in which six inmates have been charged in federal court for seizing control of the prison for 14 hour.
At least hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages were estimated by authorities because of the incident which were blamed by inmates for inhumane conditions inside their jails.
In addition, at least three incidents of jailbreaks occurred in the span of less than 10 months, including eight inmates who bolted out last month. Serving sentences for murder, abuse and other charges, they were either arrested or surrendered voluntarily to authorities a few days later.
