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New DOC chief wants to revive a juvenile detention unit
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Posted on Mar 10 2023
Anthony Torres
One of the first priorities of acting Department of Corrections commissioner Anthony Torres is the re-establishment of a juvenile detention unit.
Speaking during his confirmation hearing before the CNMI Senate on Wednesday, Torres told legislators that one of his first priorities is to revive the department’s JDU.
All juvenile inmates are presently housed in the same facility as adult inmates and Torres said it can sometimes serve as a challenge when it comes to maintaining order at the corrections facility.
“We currently have our juveniles in the adult facility since 2015 and it impedes the orderly running of our institution. I need that unit back and I need to get our juveniles into another separate facility,” Torres stated.
The previous juvenile detention facility was located in Kagman and has been closed for over eight years now.
“We’ve been planning and hoping. I’ve reached out to the acting commissioner of the Department of Public Safety at the time and the CNMI presiding judge to hopefully give us back a JDU and support a facility or support our plan in renovating [the previous] facility for a JDU unit,” he said.
The acting DOC commissioner says he also hope the CNMI administration will support his vision for the department.
“Having that one unit back will do leaps and bounds. With the support of the CNMI administration and Legislature, we can make this happen,” he said.
Torres was nominated by the Palacios-Apatang administration for his extensive career in Corrections. Until his appointment is officially confirmed by the Senate, he is the DOC chief in an acting capacity.
Torres just returned to the islands after serving several years as a correctional officer for the U.S Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons and has just started to dip his feet into the rules and protocols that govern the CNMI’s correctional facility and will update the community on the issues within the department and his solutions moving forward.
Torres, who was born on Saipan, began his law enforcement career in 1999 as an Adult Correctional Officer for the Department of Public Safety at Halawa Prison in Honolulu, Hawaii.
