B.O.C. Ships 105 Golden Grove Inmates To U.S. Prisons; Total Outside Territory Now 257

ST. CROIX — At a brief Government House press conference this morning, Governor Kenneth Mapp and Bureau of Corrections (B.O.C.) Director Rick Mullgrav announced that 105 convicted Golden Grove Correctional Facility inmates were shipped out of the territory to facilities on the U.S. mainland early this morning. Above, World Atlantic, the airliner that transported the inmates to the U.S. detention centers.

The move comes just days after four Bureau of Corrections officers were arrested on contraband charges, and it falls in line with the Mapp administration’s initiative to curb crime in the territory. It also leaves Golden Grove with just 53 sentenced inmates, and 167 detainees.

“We are committed to professionalizing the institution, and the continued movement of convicted felons out of the territory is the mantra of this administration,” Governor Kenneth Mapp said this morning.

A total of 67 inmates will be held at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona, which holds a total of 1,926 inmates, and is accredited with the American Camp Association (A.C.A.). Another 38 inmates will be held at the Citrus County Detention Facility in Florida. Unlike Saguaro, the Citrus County prison houses only 760 inmates, however it’s also accredited with A.C.A.

Mr. Mapp said it costs taxpayers $150 daily to house inmates, and that’s without additional medical costs that accumulate over the course of their incarceration. By contrast, it will cost the local government $82 to house the same prisoners in the chosen stateside facilities, he said. The territory’s leader also chided Superior Court judges, stating that the court was not doing its job of hearing cases in a timely fashion, which has caused detainees to sit in prison for multiple years for simple charges.

“We have detainees sitting in Golden Grove, some for as high as seven years, waiting for a trial. Five years, three years — some of these persons are charged with aggravated assault, destruction of property, burglaries,” Mr. Mapp said. “Yes, there are one or two that have been charged with murder; but at the end of the day, housing a detainee at a cost of $150 a day at the Bureau of Corrections, and waiting as long as seven years and seven months for a trial, is totally unacceptable.”

Mr. Mapp said his administration would accept some level of responsibility as work continues within the Department of Justice to improve resources and capacity, “but the reality is — and I’ve discussed this matter with the presiding judge — that the court simply is not moving on its dockets. We have judges who are being paid in the Superior Court, [and] some simply don’t report to work on a regular basis; do not move their court calendar; cannot respond to simple motions to move the administration of justice forward,” Mr. Mapp added.

From left to right: Bureau of Corrections Director Rick Mullgrav and Governor Kenneth Mapp at Government House in Christiansted on Tuesday, March 8, 2016.

“We have citizens in our community who are filing petitions for mandamus with the Supreme Court — which is simply asking the Superior Court judges to do their jobs — and having the Supreme Court act on those petitions to make a decision to move a trial forward.”

The governor said while the Superior Court continues to request additional resources for expansion, no favorable action would be taken on his part in support of the court’s quest.

“I am not prepared to support any additional resources to the court if the members of the Superior Court, the judiciary, is not prepared to move the court docket, and to make decisions regarding detainees in the territory,” he said.

Mr. Mullgrav said families of prisoners were not consulted before the move, and he was not sure when they would return to the territory. He said Golden Grove must be reconstructed before any such move, and was unable to provide a timeline for when construction would commence. However, Governor Mapp said he would be transmitting a capital budget to the Senate in one month that would make financial provision for infrastructural work on the Golden Grove facility, Department of Education rundown facilities and Virgin Islands Police Department.