United States Virgin Islands Department of Justice

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The United States Virgin Islands Department of Justice is a department of the United States Virgin Islands government.

Contents

United States Virgin Islands Department of Justice
Usvidoj.png
Seal
Agency overview
Employees134
Jurisdictional structure
USA Virgin Islands location map.svg
Map showing jurisdictional area
Legal jurisdictionUnited States Virgin Islands
Operational structure
Headquarters Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, US
Agency executive
Parent agency Office of the Attorney General
Website
usvidoj.com

Corrections

The Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections (BOC) operates the territory's correctional facilities. [1]

The Bureau of Corrections maintains a facility in Saint Croix, [2] the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility. As of October 1, 2014, 132 sentenced prisoners and 136 non-sentenced prisoners are at Golden Grove. The bureau also maintains jails on the island of St. Thomas: [3] those in the Alexander Farrelly Criminal Justice Complex (CJC) and the Alva A. Swan Annex. [2]

As of 2016 the BOC does not have a specific correctional officer training program, and instead has the police department train prison guards. [1]

Corrections history

In 2014 the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge to force the USVI authorities to improve conditions at Golden Grove. [4] Prior to October 1, 2014, due to staffing shortages at Golden Grove, 78 adult prisoners, including 75 sentenced prisoners at Golden Grove and three held at the St. Thomas Jails who were deemed by prison authorities as "behavioral and management concerns", were transferred to the privately operated Citrus County Detention Facility in Citrus County, Florida. [3]

Circa 2013 USVI authorities stated that they were going to improve conditions at the St. Thomas jails, but a 2015 report from David Bogard, a security analysis, stated that the level of staffing since October 2014 had deteriorated. [5]

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The Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands supervises and directs the Department of Justice. In 1962, the Virgin Islands Department of Law was established as an executive department in the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands pursuant to the Virgin Islands Code. With the passage of Act No. 5265 in 1987, the department was now referred to as the Virgin Islands Department of Justice. Additionally, the passage of Act No. 5265 placed the Bureau of Corrections under the jurisdiction and administration of the Department of Justice—remaining there until October 1, 2009. The department has the following divisions:

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References

  1. 1 2 "Corrections Officers from the Virgin Islands Attend BOP Training ." Federal Bureau of Prisons. November 2, 2016 . Retrieved on November 3, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Bureau of Corrections" (Archive). United States Virgin Islands Department of Justice. Retrieved on May 19, 2010. Alternate link
  3. 1 2 Blackburn, Joy. "Corrections transfers 78 inmates to mainland prisons" (Archived 2015-03-22 at the Wayback Machine ). Virgin Islands Daily News . October 1, 2014. Retrieved on December 9, 2015.
  4. Blackburn, Joy. "Justice: V.I. has failed to fix prison" (Archived 2015-03-22 at the Wayback Machine ). Virgin Islands Daily News . March 10, 2014. Retrieved on December 9, 2015.
  5. Blackburn, Joy. "Report: Jail conditions worse than ever Staff shortages, lack of supervision, falsified reports among the issues" (Archived 2015-08-18 at the Wayback Machine ). Virgin Islands Daily News . July 15, 2015. Retrieved on December 9, 2015.