By BONNIE ABOLA
PRISONERS will be in classrooms in Lae at the start of the new school year.
They would be giving one of life’s valuable lessons – not to get involved in crime.
Buimo Correctional Service’s low risk prisoners, through the jail’s inmate outreach programme, would be speaking from experience.
The move was expected to deter youths from wandering into crime.
Many young people that get involved in drug and alcohol abuse and other crimes and often end up in jail, Buimo CS Chief Supt Samson Jaro said.
He said that getting the low-risk inmates to talk openly about their experiences, especially prior to being jailed, would help discourage the young from taking crime.
The CS were targeting primary school-aged children because they were easily influenced through peer pressure to “try out smoking, stealing and other stupid acts” that put themselves as well as others in their community at risk.
He said favourable results of the campaign in primary schools would set the stage for an extension into high schools and higher institutions.
Mr Jaro also pointed out that he wanted to get the inmates involved in as many projects as possible, because it would assist in their rehabilitation.