Since the coronavirus pandemic, there have been no visitation rights for inmates and detainees awaiting trial at the Territorial Correctional Facility.
Under the emergency declaration for COVID-19, “The Territorial Correctional Facility will be closed for visitation but subject to the protocols established and enforced by the Commissioner of Public Safety.
“The Juvenile Detention Center shall allow visitation between those housed there and their parents and or legal guardians.”
After 8 months of not being allowed to visit her husband, the wife of a man in the TCF awaiting trial, has asked why there’s still a ban on visitors to TCF when the rest of the territory is enjoying gatherings of unlimited numbers.
She said with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up the families would like to see their loved ones in the TCF.
KHJ News sought an explanation from the Chairman of the Coronavirus Task Force Iulogolgoo Joseph Pereira in response to the woman’s inquiry.
He said,”Visitation to the TFC is at the discretion of the Commissioner of Public Safety. The Declaration grants this authority to the Commissioner to regulate visitation depending on the situation at the TCF.”
But the woman told KHJ News that she and many others have been requesting permission to visit their inmates but they’re told that the approval needs to come from the Commissioner.
She said she could never get past the commissioner’s secretary who says he’s not in his office, is attending meetings or elsewhere and he never responds to phone calls.
She said while the declaration says what Iulogologo has quoted, in reality the inmates have been deprived of visitors since March.
She said she’s also raised this matter with the Public Defender’s Office but they also don’t seem concerned.
She is hoping that their request to visit their loved ones in the TCF will be considered with the holiday season now upon us.
