Department of Corrections Commissioner Anthony Torres speaks to members of the Saipan Rotary Club on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan.
AT a meeting with the press on Tuesday, Feb. 6, Department of Corrections Commissioner Anthony Torres said there will be a stakeholders meeting this week to discuss a proposal to transfer Guam inmates to the CNMI prison facility.
Torres said the meeting will be held on Feb. 7, and will include representatives from the Attorney General’s Office, the Legislature, Corrections staff, and Department of Public Safety Acting Commissioner Anthony Macaranas.
Torres said he wants to gather stakeholders to “dialogue and [process] some of the pros and the cons of having [Guam prisoners] here.”
Torres reiterated that there will be conditions if the proposal is implemented.
“I said this in the beginning — if this plan were to take place and these inmates were to come to Saipan, they’re not going to get released here; they’re going to go back to Guam and get released there,” Torres said. “They’re not going to get paroled here. If they have elevated health issues they might have to go back to Guam because I don’t want … to burden … the CNMI government.”
Torres first discussed in December 2023 the proposal to move prisoners from Guam to the CNMI.
He said Guam has an overpopulation issue at its correctional facility, which can be addressed by the extra space at the Saipan prison facility.
“We have what they need,” Torres said in a previous interview. “We have that supply, they have a demand. We can help them and it can help us.”
A Guam news source said their local prison facility was built for 300 prisoners, but “has lately been absorbing upwards of 600 prisoners.”
Torres said the CNMI prison facility can hold up to 500 prisoners, but has less than 200 inmates.
He said Guam would pay the CNMI to house its inmates. Part of the CNMI stakeholders meeting on Wednesday will be spent on “factoring all the different variables that [are] going to help us formulate a good price per diem per inmate,” he added.
“I know I mentioned $120 per day per inmate, but it could be elevated of course given the circumstances that we’re in with the inflation … and all that,” Torres said.
The revenue that the CNMI can earn by hosting Guam inmates could be used to improve local facilities and establish a culinary trades program inside the local facility, he said.
