The Judiciary has reaffirmed its need to add more probation officers and court marshals.<\/p>\n
During a budget hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on Capital Hill last Friday, Judiciary representatives outlined their need for additional manpower in explaining their budget request of $15 million for fiscal year 2019.<\/p>\n
Committee chair Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) said that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres had proposed a little over $7 million for the Judiciary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to have to look at what they requested,\u201d said Demapan, adding that the Judiciary had talked about hiring 39 more. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that is something we can accommodate in its entirety. We have to look at the priorities of the Judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Sonia Camacho, the director of Courts, 14 of the 39 new positions would be for probation officers. \u201cThe majority of the [new positions] are for law enforcement: 14 for the Probation Office, 10 for the Court Marshal Services, three for Drug Court, one for the Law Revision Commission, and the rest are for the Office of the Clerk of Drug Court operations on Rota and Saipan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Judiciary currently has 12 probation officers, Camacho said, 10 of them locally funded, while the other two are federally funded. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe [Court Marshal Services] currently has eight on board,\u201d she said. Rota and Tinian have one marshal each; the remaining six are on Saipan.<\/p>\n
Demapan said if the funding for the 14 new positions could not be found, his committee would review the needs of the Probation Office to determine a \u201cnumber feasible for them to continue meeting the mandate of that office.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have 2,600 cases; of that, 1,600 are active,\u201d said Demapan, citing data obtained from Friday\u2019s discussion. The Judiciary said the ratio of probation officers to cases is at 100:1. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ratio is\u2026much higher than the rest of the nation, so that is something that we are going to definitely look at here\u2026 There are a lot of components within the Judiciary, so it is not just looking at one activity and making [a] determination,\u201d added Demapan.<\/p>\n
In fiscal year 2018, the Judiciary asked for $8.3 million; Torres proposed a budget of $5.9 million. It eventually got over $6.6 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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