Guam § 90 - Legislative Findings and Policy.

§ 90. Legislative Findings and Policy.

(a) I Liheslaturan Guåhan finds that the Department of

Corrections (DOC) was established by Public Law 9-208 on July

18, 1968 within the executive branch of the Government of Guam.

Before the enactment of Public Law 9-208, the Department of

Corrections was first known as the Guam Penitentiary and through

Executive Order 68-23, issued by Governor Manuel F.L Guerrero,

the Penitentiary was transferred to the Department of Corrections,

which was effective on November 1, 1968.

(b) The Department of Corrections is the only prison on

Guam and provides services to local and federal agencies. DOC

provides custodial care to individuals who are convicted of crimes

and for those who are waiting judicial disposition. The

environment of the prison must meet federal standards such as the

National Prison Standards, Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA),

and the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare

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Standards (NCCHC), which ensures that the living conditions are

decent and humane; but, with the issue of overcrowding and

structural failures, DOC has been struggling to properly execute

their mandates and comply with national standards. DOC is

ensuring that it prevents any violations of the Federal Consent

Decree, which requires the Government of Guam to improve the

living conditions of the inmates following the Civil Rights of

Institutionalized Persons Act.

(c) The Adult Correctional Facility (ACF) in Mangilao is in

its stages of failure due to age and lack of modern technology,

which is affecting the operations and personnel of the correctional

agency. The ACF was built to hold a maximum of three hundred

(300) inmates and detainees; and currently, the population of

Guam is growing as well as its crime rates, while DOC has

outgrown its ACF. Over time, other DOC buildings were added to

address the overcrowding issues of the ACF, and buildings used

for rehabilitation and offices were re-designed to accommodate

the rising population of prisoners. The Adult Correctional Facility

is made of fifteen (15) housing units, which holds not only local

inmates and detainees, but also immigration and federal detainees.

The lack of proper facilities prevents DOC from properly

providing rehabilitation to the inmates.

(d) The poor condition of the housing units of the prison is

not cost effective or adequate to handle the growing prisoner

population, and DOC recognized the difficulty in meeting its

mandates of providing security, health, rehabilitation and welfare

to the inmates and detainees under its care without compromising

the well-being of its personnel. The main goal of the Department

of Corrections is to provide rehabilitation to individuals who have

been convicted of crimes and ensure that they become useful

members of the community and to themselves.

(e) Furthermore, I Liheslaturan Guåhan finds that DOC has

plans to build a new Department of Corrections facility with a bed

capacity for one thousand (1,000) inmates to replace its current

prison if funding was available. The new prison would provide the

proper space to meet its mandates and the demands of its growing

prisoner population. The Department of Corrections had started to

draft an eighty (80)-year master plan, which will provide a phase-

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to-phase plan to construct a new Department of Corrections

facility that will meet its construction goal of a bed capacity of one

thousand (1,000) inmates. The Department of Corrections’ goal is

to ensure that all the issues on structural, technology, and security

of the inmates and personnel are covered. The master plan also

ensures that DOC meets all federal standards such as the National

Prison Standards and PREA standards.

(f) Therefore, it is the intent of I Liheslaturan Guåhan to

provide the Department of Corrections with the proper

confinement of offenders in a controlled environment prison and

community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient,

and appropriately secure, which also promotes the safety of the

people of Guam. I Liheslaturan Guåhan has identified funding to

construct a new Department of Corrections Adult Correctional

Facility through the Earned Income Tax Credits to be reimbursed

to Guam at an estimated Sixty Million Dollars ($60,000,000)

annually, of which an estimate of no more than Five Million

Dollars ($5,000,000) will be allocated for the payments of the

lease-back agreement.

(g) In an effort to overcome financing hurdles, and to provide

DOC with the proper tools to meet its mandates, I Liheslaturan

Guåhan desires to authorize the Government of Guam to enter

into contract for the financing, design, construction, and long-term

capital maintenance of a new Department of Corrections facility

with private sector contractors who can provide long-term

financing.

(h) To facilitate the financing, design, construction, and

maintenance of a new Department of Corrections facility

envisioned by this Act, the Government of Guam will be

authorized to execute a lease agreement of existing property under

its inventory for up to thirty (30) years on which the new

Department of Corrections facility will be constructed.

(i) The lease of the Government of Guam’s property will be

to the contractor and/or the Guam Economic Development

Authority, who will design and construct the new Department of

Corrections facility and provide a funding for the design and

construction through appropriations received from the

reimbursement of the Earned Income Tax Credit for Fiscal Year

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2022 and prospective appropriations from the General Fund,

thereafter annually. Upon completion of the construction, the

facilities and land will be leased back to the Government of Guam

for a period not to exceed the initial ground lease to the contractor

over which time the Government of Guam will amortize, as lease

payments to the contractor, the cost of financing, design,

construction, and related expenses of the new Department of

Corrections.

(j) The contractor/developer will also be responsible for the

capital maintenance and repair of the Department of Corrections

constructed under this Act, which costs shall be paid by the

Government of Guam as provided for under this Act. At the

expiration of the lease-back period, the Government of Guam real

property and the Department of Corrections constructed on the

Government of Guam real property will revert to the Government

of Guam with no further obligations to the contractor.

2021 NOTE: Subsection designations added pursuant to authority granted

by GCA § 1606.