by Jolene Toves

Guam - An oversight hearing is scheduled for next week to get to the bottom of the DOC escape which occurred Monday.

Following the escape of an alleged murderer from a DOC van during transport on Monday, Senator Brant McCreadie wrote a letter to Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz requesting an oversight hearing to get to the bottom of how exactly this was able to happen. Although Senator McCreadie requested the oversight be conducted as soon as the cause of the escape is identified, the vice speaker decided to hold one as soon as possible.

"But I am also aware of the fact that once they start the internal affairs investigation its going to be difficult to get answers until the internal investigation is completed," he said.

The oversight hearing will look at DOC's operations and procedures in an effort to find an immediate solution to ensure that detainees and inmates are kept safely away from the public. "The focus is on procedures and protocols that happened a few days ago when an alleged murder escaped from the transport vehicle and as a lawmaker I have no tolerance for that type of stuff," he said.

The news of the escape is undoubtedly a travesty and raises questions into doc's standard operating and procedures and it's deficiencies. "I think we need answers we need to figure out why it happened and I think my main goal of this oversight is to ensure this never happens again and the community remains safe," he said.

As we reported in less than an hour and thirty minutes Keith Garrido was not only able to escape authorities but allegedly commit additional acts of crime before being captured.

Meanwhile, it took less than two hours for the vice speaker to schedule the oversight hearing for next week. "I am hoping that by the 15th, Department of Corrections would have completed its investigation and we'll be able to get some answers," he said. "We are absolutely going to try and get as much information as we can if we can't accomplish that because of the investigation then I'm sure when the investigation is concluded then we will revisit the information that we were anticipating to get."

While response for an oversight came at lighting speed, its been two months and McCreadie's bill to construct and renovate a new state of the art Department of Corrections facility continues to sit in Senator Ben Pangelinan's committee waiting for a public hearing to be scheduled.