Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says contrabands or the smuggling of illegal materials, continues to be a challenge for the Fiji Corrections Services.
Speaking in Parliament, Rabuka said this however does not deter the Fiji Corrections Service in carrying out its primary role to rehabilitate convicts that come under the care of the Fiji Corrections Service.
Rabuka said there are enough measures in place, plus other technologies –camera, CCTV, metal detectors, to stop those that bring in contrabands like mobile phones, suki, cigarettes and even most of the drugs that are on the streets are also in prison.
“In prison facilities, we can find dollar notes. I do not know what to buy there, but they know how to use it, and these are some of the challenges that officers face – and to stop this, Fiji Corrections Service needs to tighten up its checks processes.”
The Prime Minister also highlighted the challenges faced by Corrections Officers, who often given stressful tasks of looking after notorious inmates.
He said that they do not have enough time to go home, providing more stress to officers of not being able to see family members.
“I think one of the suggestions that the Committee had suggested to the Commissioner then and the delegation that came from the Fiji Corrections Service is for officers to go through a distress programme and also trauma programme while they are still serving. Sometimes through pressure at work, it does result in some kind of incident beyond them because they are dealing with notorious criminals,” Rabuka added.
The Prime Minister made these comment during the review report of the Fiji Corrections Service 2017 – 2018 Annual Report.
