DETAINEES at Bomana Correctional Institute are currently visiting popular crime spots, schools and villagers discouraging young people from committing activities that will put them behind bars.
An awareness drive which started last Monday aimed to deter young people, especially men from committing violent activities in the societies against woman and girls.
Four detainees – Charles Kaona, Fei Stanley, Philip Vaki, Jeffery Joe and Pepsi Maru – shared their experiences behind prison bars along with 14 other low-risk detainees including three female prisoners.
Kaona, who came to Bomana from Lakiemata jail, Kimbe, in the late 1990s, shared that he was on death sentence but the Supreme Court reduced it to life. He had served 12 years of it so far.
Stanley appealed to mothers and young women to refrain from committing crimes, adding women must not go to prison because there will be no one to look after their families, especially their children at home.
Vaki shared experiences of what a person went through from day one after committing the crime.
“From the hands of police to the courts and then from the courts to prison. You will be stripped of your title ... no matter who you are or what you are, as long as you have committed a crime and end up in prison, you are nothing,” he said.
Joe and Maru spoke on drugs and alcohol and their effects, they stressed that other forms of crimes committed were associated with drug and alcohol abuse.
They also warned that family violence and poverty could destroy family as a result of drug abuse and alcohol consumption.