Assistant Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham, the consent decree coordinator, told the Variety yesterday that the three-man team is composed of a senior attorney for DOJ, an expert in prison operations and policy, and an expert in fire safety. They will be arriving on Thursday.
“The purpose of the visit from the DOJ team is to conduct site visits in the correctional facilities of the commonwealth and to determine whether the CNMI is in compliance with the federal consent decree,” Buckingham said.
The team will be staying in the CNMI for about a week.
“They will be having an introductory conference with U.S. District Court for the CNMI Chief Judge Alex R. Munson and they will then conduct site visits at the adult correctional facility, the Kagman juvenile facility, as well as the Rota and Tinian detention center,” Buckingham said.
The DOJ team’s last visited the commonwealth in 2003.
“Since their last visit, we have maintained regular communication and submitted quarterly reports to them,” he said.
Originally, the consent decree requires the CNMI to submit reports every six months but the commonwealth believes that this is a lengthy period.
“If we miss one report, that would mean that a year would go by without a report being submitted,” Buckingham said.
With the arrival of the DOJ team, he said they will know which areas need improvements.
The federal consent decree, Buckingham said, took effect in 1999 and this governs the operations for the adults and juveniles in the custody of the commonwealth. It also covers the detention facilities on Tinian and Rota.
