The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights - Northern Marianas advisory committee has been meeting for months to decide its core focus for investigation.

Acting chair of the CNMI Advisory Committee Catherine Cachero said, "We then voted to investigate the topic of access to adequate health care for incarcerated individuals within the Northern Mariana Islands’ Justice System."

The committee’s first in-person briefing on Friday featured panels of attorneys, healthcare providers, and government officials for a full day of testimony.

The first panel included impacted individuals like Godfrey Mendiola who sued the Department of Corrections for inadequate medical care and inhumane prison conditions starting in 2018.

"I was put in a very dirty and unsanitary condition -- no running water in my cell. I contracted bacteria. I could not even walk. It took DOC eight months to finally get my medications after the doctor ordered them six months earlier. So somehow the blaming game started with DOC medical staff," Mediola said.

CNMI Chief of Parole Nick Reyes hesitated to confirm the allegations but recognized the circumstances at the prison after working in the field for over two decades. He said, "I do not want to say he is right, but a lot of things, when I started I saw those things happening in Corrections. You send in a medical slip, they dump it in the trash, it does not go forward. That is how poor it is."

Reyes brought Alfred Aldan to the panel, who he says has been on parole for 17 years. He said, "For my experience, I, too, would wait probably a week just to get a checkup for my tooth. And they would not fix my teeth they would just extract them because the rule is there is no money. There is always no money for us individuals. We would see the doctor, depending if the doctor is in or not. Sometimes the doctor would come in once a week. We had nurses but the nurses were gone for long, maybe two or three months and then they were gone. Because they can’t afford it. It is always about money. "

Corrections Commissioner Anthony Torres, who took office in March, says the department, under his leadership, will take responsibility and create programs aimed at rehabilitation and reintegration.

The commissioner explained, "Currently, the medical unit utilizes a triage form through which all detainees and inmates, including juveniles, females, and federal ICE detainees can report their health concerns. All inmates and detainees are given instructions regarding requesting care by the classification and the juvenile officers educate the juveniles. An illness, injury, symptom, or condition of a serious nature receives immediate expedited attention with a referral to the CHC emergency room. Other nonurgent health problems are addressed via the triage form generally within 15 minutes of being received by the medical unit and acted upon with regard to the nature of the content."

DOC currently has one medical doctor who is at the prison for 40 hours a week and three trained officers in the medical unit. They also have three mental health counselors.

While the legislature has provided funding for three nurses, recruitment is an issue.

In a separate panel, healthcare officials responded to the committee’s question of what support they need to improve the system.

Dr. Glenda George, who is the director of Behavioral Health Clinical Services, said, "We first need to assess the need for the incarcerated because there is such a wide range of spectrum of care that we're looking at and if we know where the greatest need is, then I think that's where we can focus our workforce development and just kind of answer that need."

She added, "But beforehand it is really difficult to do it with a blind eye or blind shot. But for now, we've just been working with what's most medically necessary."

The committee will prepare a report based on panel testimony which they will forward to the commission.