Palacios signs into law public corruption bill

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios signed into law last week a bill that expands and clarifies the offense of official misconduct and establishing felony and misdemeanor punishments.

Palacios also signed into law a bill that aims to provide clarity to the crime of promoting prison contraband and outlines appropriate punishment.

The anti-public corruption bill, House Bill 23-15, House Substitute 1, now goes into the records as Public Law 23-06.

The House of Representatives passed the legislation last March 17 with amendments. It was then referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government and Law. The full Senate passed the bill last June 23 without amendments.

Rep. Vicente C. Camacho (D-Saipan), who is the author of the legislation, stated in the bill that public officials must be held to a standard commensurate to the high esteem in which they are held.

Camacho said this bill provides an expanded and clarified definition of official misconduct and assigns specific felony and misdemeanor punishments, depending on the type of underlying misconduct.

The prison contraband legislation, House Bill 23-17, is enacted into Public Law 23-07.

The House passed the bill last March 9 with amendments upon the recommendation of the Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee. The legislation was then referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government and Law. The full Senate passed the bill without amendments last June 23 upon the committee’s recommendation.

Rep. John Paul Sablan (Ind-Saipan), who is the author of the bill, earlier stated that it is a recycled bill that he first introduced in the 22nd Legislature.

Sablan said he re-introduced the legislation because the CNMI does not have any statute that deals with contraband being brought inside the local prison.

According to the legislation, current CNMI law regarding prison contraband is quite antiquated, and does not take intoaccount the current needs of the Department of Corrections to secure its facilities.

Clarification in the law is needed to redefine what items are prohibited, along with appropriate penalties for those who introduce, possess and promote contraband in correctional facilities.

The bill defines what items are considered contraband.