(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 COL11/30/2021 CH. 90 CORRECTIONS 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- COL11/30/2021 CH. 90 CORRECTIONS 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 COL11/30/2021 CH. 90 CORRECTIONS 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.