Correctional Services officers rise to inspector level

ABOUT 40 Correctional Services (CS) officers have risen to inspector level.
Their graduation was officiated by CS commissioner Stephen Pokanis who told the 39 graduates that they had a duty to correct and rehabilitate law breakers so that they could fit back into society.
Pokanis encouraged the graduates to work diligently in serving the people and community.
“If one prisoner escapes, don’t forget that we have successfully detained 100 prisoners,” he told them.
“If 10 prisoners escape, don’t forget the hundreds we still detain and look after.”
Pokanis said that many times the media and society complained a lot over one prison break, forgetting the dedication, time and effort of the Correctional Services in detaining law offenders,” he said.
“So do your job with pride, you have a duty to ensure that once these detainees leave the correctional institutions, they won’t be a threat to the community.
“We are hoping to gain an academic status by 2020 so that the Correctional Services Training Centre can be upgraded to Correctional Services Academy.”
“We will also be offering cultural diversity courses in our training by 2020 as Papua New Guinea is a diverse country with diverse cultures and languages. “So it is essential for our officers to get the cultural diversity course as we have detainees from all over the country who are from different cultures.”
Three correctional officers from Vanuatu also graduated with the local officers on Friday.
Pokanis said it was a start to seeing more officers from Vanuatu coming into the country to train.