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DYS running impatient on AG’s review of CNMI criminal code
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Posted on Jan 24 2001
Officials of the Division of Youth Services has expressed disdain over the long period of evaluation and review that the Attorney General’s Office has been spending on the proposed revision of the CNMI Criminal Code.
The DYS urged the AG and the Legislature to expedite the process so that the CNMI can effectively mete penalties equivalent to the severity of different criminal cases.
Well-placed sources at the division disclosed that for more than three years, the DYS has not received a word from the Legislature and later on from the AGO to which the evaluation was tossed following a request to thoroughly inspect the set of laws to be meted against a felon, both adults and juvenile.
Based on the earlier proposal submitted by the DYS, officials of the division asked the Legislature to upgrade the penalties and punishment to be rendered to a convicted felon or a juvenile involved in various offenses.
Under the old Criminal Code, penalties for juvenile delinquent were compressed to only less than two pages of the book while the proposal submitted to the House composed of more than 33 pages covering mostly juvenile offenses, punishments, among others.
Since the first proposal, the source who requested not to be named said the Criminal Code was placed in a dust bin and developments were never forwarded to them.
Reports disclosed, however, that Asst. Attorney General Jim Benedetto is still evaluating the Criminal Code and the AG is in the process of overhauling the entire CNMI Criminal Code, although reports further stressed that there are still so much to be covered and the AG is checking every little details of the book.
The new CNMI Criminal Code will be more effective and the AG will have more room to operate rather than to restrict its hand to a less-effective set of laws.
