DOC at risk of returning $250K Interior grant

The Department of Corrections has three weeks to use it or lose it. Federal money awarded to the agency three years ago til' this day is hanging in the balance.

It has until Sept. 30 to use a $250,000 grant awarded three years ago by the Department of the Interior.


"I don't know why there is no action being done," Vice Speaker Telena Nelson said.

The grant money is supposed to go toward hiring a company to conduct an assessment and Master Plan to ensure safety and the future growth of DOC.

Since 2016 two RFP's have gone out. The first in 2017 but was pulled back due to technical issues and the second issued in December.

Nelson, who also is the vice chair of Public Safety, said time is simply running out.

"There has been concern, however, that the lay of opening up the cost packet if the proposal even still stand because it takes 180 days before that proposal expires so that's one concern," she said. "Another concern is perhaps we are waiting for NIC, the National Institute of Corrections to see if they can do the master plan but the challenge is are they really capable of doing that, is that really even their function?"

For the project to begin, an official contract for the master plan must be drafted, reviewed and signed by the vendor, the attorney general and the governor before Sept. 30.

KUAM asked DOC Director Samantha Brennan for an update on the latest RFP. She responded its currently under review and "cannot comment further." The vice speaker, however, wants some answers and as of Thursday sent a Freedom of Information Request over to DOC.


"The FOIA we sent to the Department of Corrections involves the incidents that have occurred since January 2019, we wanted to have a better understanding of the challenges that they have like what was the cause for the erroneous releases, who was in charge at the time," she said. "What was the chain of command? What is their procedures? Another one was what was the cause for our officers getting attacked by inmates?"

Vice Speaker Nelson wants information about staff and SOP's that haven't been updated since the 1990's to get a better understanding of the needs at the agency.

"Because there is lack of training at DOC and there needs to be best practices put forward and that master plan will lay that out also for the officers and provide avenues for additional training to improve standard operation procedures," she said.

Eventually, Nelson will hold an oversight over the agency. But for now, she's hoping DOC won't be locked out of $250,000 in free money.

"To lose DOI grant money because of lack of attention is just not a reason why," she said.