Is rehabilitation

the answer?

Despite statistics showing a decline in the number of prisoners in Fiji, prisons around the country are still filled to capac ity, mostly with repeat offenders. And a recent report investigating break-outs from prisons shows lack of equipment, inadequate security measures and poor management have combined to con tribute to the many escapes.

Suva Prison has 134 inmates, Lautoka has 139, Naboro secures 299 with an addi tional 24 at the prerelease centre in Naboro. Smaller prisons such as those in Labasa, Levuka, Ba, Taveuni and Lakeba have a total of 118 prisoners. The women’s prison in Korovou is filled to capacity with 12 inmates, while the juvenile prison has 96 inmates.

Acting Commissioner of Prisons, Ilesa Tiko, is concerned that unless society

realises its responsibility towards rehabili tating prisoners, the current 50 percent rate of recidivism would mean at least 400 of the 842 now in custody would re offend and return behind bars. This was the magnitude of the crime problem in

Fiji.

Tiko believes the Prisons Department is only one part of the criminal justice sys tem and a collective effort was needed to combat the crime problem.

He did not mince his words in blaming society for the crime rate. “What we have here is a society unable to live in political harmony. This results in investors not hav ing the confidence they should have and, as a result, the economy is suffering.

Therefore, the unemployed, especially

those with no type of work experience, are resorting to crime as a means to a

livelihood.”

The prison service has many types of rehabilitation programmes which include family visits, visits by church colleagues, Bible studies, training for jobs and projects aimed at making prisoners more socially adaptable. But they had worked in only some instances, largely for older prisoners.

Tiko believes the programme failed because once prisoners stepped outside, they were snubbed and alienated by soci ety.

“Even if a prisoner is genuinely seeking to rehabilitate, people generally are not willing to give him that chance,’"Tiko said.

He said prisoners, faced with social rejection, normally preferred the prison environment so they could be part of a group which shared similar lifestyles. This explained why many younger prisoners returned to life in prison within a short time of being released.

Over the past 10-year period, the aver age annual intake of prisoners has been 1307. The coups (of 1987) resulted in a drastic drop in the number of prisoners, but economic pressures which set in in 1990 took their toll and the number of inmates increased from 726 in 1989 to 2259 in 1990. The trend continued until last year when the number of prisoners was a low 848. ■