19 Oct 2010

American Samoa's Chief Justice wants action against use of drugs in prisons

10:29 am on 19 October 2010

American Samoa's Chief Justice, Michael Kruse, wants action taken against the use of drugs in the territory's prisons.

He has recommended that the executive conduct regular inspections of the Territorial Correctional Facility to prevent illegal drugs from entering the prison.

The chief justice made the comment during the sentencing of Mac Taylor, who was found with methamphetamine and marijuana during a search of the jail last year.

The investigation happened at the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program unit of the jail, where inmates convicted of drug-related cases undergo treatment.

Justice Kruse said there is some sort of "institutional assistance or institutional neglect" that's happening at the jail.

He said thousands dollars in federal monies were come to the territory to implement the drug programme but the it was turning into something other than a treatment centre.