Following the ribbon cutting Tuesday for the expansion of the territory’s main prison on St. Croix, V.I. Attorney General Iver Stridiron told Senate Finance Committee members that work on the stalled Sub Base Jail Annex on St. Thomas will resume in about three months.
The committee, meeting on St. Croix, grilled Stridiron on issues facing the V.I. Bureau of Corrections, an agency that the attorney general oversees. Corrections was close to losing more than $1.3 million in federal funds because construction on the jail annex had not been completed.
Although the federal government had provided funds to finish the project, aimed at adding 25 more beds to the annex facility, federal officials threatened to pull the money because it was commingled with local government funds in the General Fund.
On Tuesday, though, Stridiron said work will begin 30 days after an $86,000 contract with a contractor is signed, and that will occur soon.
Along with providing funding, the U.S. Marshal Service has said it is also willing to pay $46 a day to use the Sub Base annex to temporarily hold each federal prisoner, including detained illegal immigrants. The federal use of the Corrections Annex could generate $400,000-plus a year.
Stridiron said that despite the budgetary strain Corrections makes on the V.I. Justice Department, he doesn't necessarily favor having it made into a separate department. DOJ’s $23 million budget is now split among Justice, Corrections and the division of Paternity and Child Support.
"I think your department . . . is suffering," Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole told Stridiron. "I think we should look at separating that entity."
Stridiron appeared to agree in part with that sentiment but said Gov. Charles Turnbull hadn’t made a policy decision on the issue. Having Corrections under the Justice Department works "to a certain extent," Stridiron said, adding he wasn’t ready to make it its own entity.
"I’m not making that argument – yet," he said.
To further compound difficulties, Justice and Corrections must open a drug treatment unit and a unit to handle individuals who are not fit to stand trial and who are not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sen. Norman Jn. Baptiste voiced his concern about HIV infection among inmates and asked whether Corrections has measures in place to minimize rapes in prison.
Horace Magras, Corrections director, said that inmates are screened for HIV and that he wasn’t aware of any sexual assaults between prisoners.
"Homosexuality is not accepted, period," Magras said. "We don’t have, to the best of my knowledge, any incidents of rape. I am confident the department provides a secure environment for all offenders."
