Former Puerto Rico Corrections and Rehabilitation Department secretary Francisco Quiñones said on Friday, November 13, that Alex Joel Torres Guzmán was removed both as chair and as a member of the evaluating committee tasked with selecting the company that will replace Physician Correctional as the medical services provider in Puerto Rico’s prisons. Quiñones said Torres Guzmán was removed on October 27.
We are in the final stage. I named Alex Joel Torres Guzmán as chair of that committee. The last I heard is that last month, I think on October 27, he was removed.
Quiñones said that before leaving his post he set up an evaluating committee and hired an expert to lead the selection process for the new company. He said he could understand Torres Guzmán being relieved of the chairmanship but not being excluded from the committee, though he acknowledged that authorities have the power to do so.
"We are in the final stage. I named Alex Joel Torres Guzmán as chair of that committee. The last I heard is that last month, I think on October 27, he was removed. Last month, I think on October 27, he was removed not only from the chairmanship, he was removed from the committee," Quiñones said.
On the future of Physician Correctional as the prison system’s medical services provider, Quiñones declined to anticipate a determination, saying "time will tell" and that he would not answer that question categorically, though he noted that shortly before leaving he had said he would make a decision before September 30.