Fiji Tries A New Way Of Handling Its Prisoners

Handling Its Prisoners

From a Special Correspondent in Suva Major Basil Sellers, former Superintendent of Prisons in Fiji, stood on a hilltop at Naboro at the end of July and saw the realisation of a dream. Below him was a neat prison block, per haps the most modern of its kind in the South Pacific and Aus tralasia. In the surrounding countryside roads ran through

thriving crops.

TfORE than two years earlier, Major Sellers had stood near the me spot and looked out on thick ish as he outlined plans to develop prison farm to give practical agri iltural training to men sent to gaol, nd here it now was.

The Naboro project is more than just new prison block to ease the strain i the Colony’s overcrowded gaols, though it will certainly help to do is. By about September it will have I inmates. (Suva’s gaol, alone by imparison, has more than 300 men, though it was built for only 200).

Rehabilitation

Naboro’s chief virtue will be that will enable young offenders to be parated from hardened criminals.

The emphasis at the Naboro Farm on rehabilitation. It will accom- Ddate selected first and second : enders between the ages of 17 and . They will be given practical train l in agriculture to enable them to d a living at the completion of fir sentences.

Living conditions are good. Build ?s are light, modern and airy.

Prisoners will be accommodated in -bed dormitories. Each man will ve his own locker, sprung bed, ittress, pillow and blankets. All i buildings are screened against )squitoes and flies. Toilet and Dwer facilities are far superior to )se of any other prison in the ilony.

Fhe dining room, where food will served cafeteria style, will also ve as a classroom and recreation )m.

Fhere are washing and ironing )ms. \ parade ground within the com und will also serve as volleyball irts. A sports field is planned out e the compound.

But prisoners will have to work rd.

Every minute of the day, from

reveille at 6 a.m. to lights out at 8.30 p.m., will be planned. There will be work and discipline.

Except for weekends, when there will be a change in routine, each day will begin with cleaning of dorm itories and 15 minutes’ physical train ing before breakfast. The prisoners will work on the farm from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour for lunch and a 10-minute break, morning and afternoon.

After the evening meal there will be an hour of recreation followed by evening classes, where the emphasis will be on agricultural subjects and English.

Training will also be given in first aid by the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and churches of various de nominations have combined to pro vide a series of lectures and dis cussions. After that will come a half hour reading period, an inspection of dormitories and lights out.

Visit Of Inspection

The Acting Superintendent of Prisons, Mr. E. Smith, showed a small party over the project recently. The party included the Secretary for Social Services, Mr. K. R. Bain, the Visiting Justice, Mr. Moti Tikaram, and the architect, Mr. D. Greenman, who de signed and supervised the buildings.

Also present were Major Sellers, who first conceived the scheme, and Chief Prisons Officer, Eddie Raddock, who will be in charge of it.

When completed, the project, in cluding quarters for prison officers, will have cost about £70,000.

What has been completed so far is the first stage of a larger project to rationalise the treatment of prisoners. Essentially, this stage is aimed at the rehabilitation of young offenders who have gone off the rails, but who can, it is thought, be put back on the right lines by sympathetic but firm treatment and practical training.

There is another class of young

offender—the young man with a bad record who is rapidly heading towards a life of crime. For him, a different kind of treatment is planned—short, sharp shock treatment at a detention centre which is planned at Naboro.

There life will be tough and designed to teach the offender that crime does not pay.

Finally, there is a third class of offender—the hard-core criminal with a bad record, who is serving a long sentence the trouble maker who needs close confinement and who needs separating from the younger and lesser offenders on whom he is a bad influence.

For this type of criminal a security training prison is planned. This will also be built at Naboro, as part of a five-year development plan.

This first stage at Naboro may well prevent young offenders from eventual confinement in the security prison— at least that is one aim of this imaginative scheme.