CORRECTIONAL Services minister Tony Aimo has expressed his appreciation on the initiative taken by the Australian government under the AusAID to provide incentives to jails throughout the country to maintain its up-keep.
He said Correctional Services, being one of the three disciplined forces in the country, should take the lead in promoting cleanliness, health and hygiene, and provide an environment for all staff and the remandees to work and live in.
“But the incentive package awarded by AusAID was an added bonus that boosted a better general up-keep of most prison facilities throughout the country,” Mr Aimo said.
The comments came in light of the recent AusAID award to Kavieng Correctional Institution for its general up-keep.
The award makes Kavieng the number one in the New Guinea Islands region. Kavieng has also won an award last year for excellence in jail cleanliness, general upkeep and its rehabilitation programmes.
The award landed Kavieng with over K18,000, which was shared amongst CS officers as their Christmas presents.
Mr Aimo renewed his call to all Government agencies and the private sector to use “free’” labour provided by the State prisoners.
“While applauding the superb efforts by AusAID, we want to work in partnership with all sectors of the community in engaging our remandees to be productive. Some of our prisoners have technical training skills and could be of much help,” he said.
Mr Aimo said engaging prisoners in community or industry-related work would help in their rehabilitation programme, where it would greatly enhance the reintegration of the remandees back to the society.
Prison institutions that won the AusAID incentive package include Buimo jail in Morobe for Momase region and Giligi in Milne Bay for the Southern region.