CNMI initiates talks of housing Guam inmates in Saipan prison
CNMI Corrections Commissioner Anthony Torres and Guam Department of Corrections director Fred Bordallo Jr. are set to talk about housing some of Guam’s inmates at the Saipan facility to help ease overcrowding at the Guam prison.
Torres said in a press conference yesterday that he is set to meet with Bordallo and a few Guam DOC officials tomorrow to discuss having the CNMI house some of Guam’s inmates to curb its overcrowding dilemma.
“We will be meeting to discuss the plan to have Guam inmates brought and detained [on] Saipan. We’re going to help Guam [and they’ll in turn] help us. We all know that Guam is facing some overcrowding issues and we want to alleviate that overcrowding by housing some inmates here while also generating revenue,” he said.
By housing inmates from Guam, DOC would be able to generate revenue as well so it’s a win-win situation, Torres explained.
“[This is] a revenue-generating stream we’re looking into. As an example, we start with 100 inmates from Guam. That’s 100 inmates at $120 per diem—that’s $4.3 million a year. Then I can identify and allocate those generated funds…to fixing DOC’s kitchen, expand DOC’s agricultural outreach, and other rehabilitative programs. I’m not going to wait around for federal grants to be awarded. I’m going to see what we can do to generate funds to help our staff and inmates.”
Torres was quick to add, though, that he also prioritizes the CNMI’s public safety and will handpick inmates who will be sent over to ensure these inmates are nonviolent convicts who are healthy and strong and can contribute to the CNMI.
Saipan’s correctional facility can hold a little over 500 inmates, but is currently housing only a little over 200 individuals. “So, we have space,” said Torres.
Guam DOC officials will also be taking a tour of the Saipan facility and checking out DOC’s rehabilitative outreach programs.
“We are going to meet so we can sit down and talk about this matter and we’re going to conduct a tour of our facilities and probably even some of our outreach programs to help rehabilitate inmates,” he said.
Torres said it has always been part of his vision for DOC to generate revenue to further enhance its facilities and he saw an opportunity by partnering with Guam in this matter.
“These conversations were forthcoming. When I first came onboard, it was part of my vision. I knew they had a [situation] they needed alleviated, and I knew we could help them. This is more of a partnership because I want to be able to build a partnership with Guam [as well as] Hawaii, Maine, Wyoming, Montana, etc.,” he said.
Torres said he has been cultivating contacts with DOC directors from other states and territories and he is optimistic that they, too, will soon visit the CNMI and build a partnership with DOC.
“I was just at a Correctional Leaders Association conference and I’ve started to form those partnerships with other directors out there and they’re going to be coming out to the CNMI and they’re going to see what we’re doing. I’m hopefully going to go out there too to see what they’re doing out there. We [intend] to share each other’s playbooks. Theres a lot of cutting-edge stuff that we can implement here that they can’t, like making use of our backyard, which is the ocean. But I’ll save those plans for later. This is the first step,” Torres said.
Anthony Torres
