{"id":21760,"date":"2012-06-15T08:05:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T08:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=21760"},"modified":"2012-06-15T08:05:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T08:05:48","slug":"ice-many-prison-deficiencies-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ice-many-prison-deficiencies-found\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE: Many prison deficiencies found"},"content":{"rendered":"
‘Saipan prison must conform to rigorous standards’<\/div>\n
By Haidee V. Eugenio
\nReporter<\/div>\n

Saipan’s $20.9-million adult prison that opened only in 2008 could lose more federal inmates to facilities in Guam, Hawaii, and Los Angeles and could face complaints for not keeping up with revised detention standards to ensure improved medical and mental health services, among other things, officials said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed yesterday that they found \u201cseveral deficiencies\u201d in the Saipan facility’s detainee healthcare system related to \u201cstaffing, availability of services and recordkeeping\u201d that resulted in the transfer off-island of all but six ICE inmates on Saipan.<\/p>\n

There used to be as many as 20 ICE detainees at the facility last month.<\/p>\n

ICE is a component agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the lead agency in the federal takeover of CNMI immigration.<\/p>\n

Lori K. Haley, public affairs officer\/spokeswoman for ICE-Western Region, said ICE is committed to ensuring the welfare of all those in its custody and to providing the highest quality medical care available.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll facilities under contract to house ICE detainees must conform to the agency\u2019s rigorous detention standards and undergo regular comprehensive inspections,\u201d she told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

ICE revised its detention standards to improve medical and mental health services, increase access to legal services and religious opportunities, improve communication with detainees with limited English proficiency, improve the process for reporting, and responding to complaints, and increase recreation and visitation.<\/p>\n

These new standards, known as Performance-Based National Detention Standards 2011, represent an important step in detention reform.<\/p>\n

PBNDS 2011 reflects ICE\u2019s ongoing effort to tailor the conditions of immigration detention to its unique purpose while maintaining a safe and secure detention environment for staff and detainees.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tony Sablan (R-Saipan), a former member of the CNMI Prison Task Force and a former CNMI immigration director, said yesterday it is in the CNMI’s best interest to comply with federal detention standards to avoid complaints and lawsuits from local and federal inmates, as well as avoid losing more federal inmates to facilities off-island.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE may also have made that decision to transfer their inmates to avoid potential lawsuits. Detention standards are there, regardless of the inmates-whether local or federal detainees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Just the same, Sablan said it would be better if the U.S. Bureau of Prisons could also make its own \u201cneutral assessment\u201d of the Saipan prison rather than having ICE-as a \u201cclient\u201d of the facility-doing all the assessment.<\/p>\n

Haley confirmed that the recent assessments of the Saipan detention facility were performed by representatives from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and Health Service Corps.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cICE has informed CNMI officials about the findings and outlined the changes that need to be made to bring the facility into compliance with ICE’s standards.\u201d ICE found \u201cseveral deficiencies in the facility’s detainee healthcare system related to staffing, availability of services, and record keeping.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these deficiencies came to light last month, ICE transferred several aliens out of the Saipan detention facility. At this time, six ICE detainees remain in custody there,\u201d Haley said.<\/p>\n

ICE’s current detention contract with the CNMI to use the Saipan prison extends through May 2013 and provides funding for 20 beds at a rate of $89 a day, Haley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE values its relationship with its partners at the CNMI Department of Corrections and appreciates the department’s continued willingness to work with us to safeguard the welfare of ICE’s detainees,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Edward Buckingham said the transfer of 13 inmates to Guam, Hawaii, and Los Angeles are \u201coperational decisions\u201d made by ICE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commonwealth and ICE collaborate on a range of issues including housing detainees. We expect that the population will return to 20 once the healthcare issues are addressed. Both ICE and the Commonwealth are proceeding with the understanding this is a priority. There is no specific timeline in place,\u201d Buckingham had said.<\/p>\n

Another CNMI official privy to the issue said ICE’s standards seem like \u201ctoo much\u201d and do not seem to take into account the CNMI’s current realities, including financial constraint to station a nurse at the Saipan prison, for example. The official said it seems those who are in prison are required to have better access to healthcare than those outside of prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Saipan prison must conform to rigorous standards’ By Haidee V. Eugenio Reporter Saipan’s $20.9-million adult…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}