ENB jail intake steady

THE intake into Kerevat Jail, East New Britain, has been steady since April, 280 prisoners until this week when that rose to 291 inmates, Supt Kiddy Keko said.
The new jail commanding officer said despite numerous reports of lawlessness in the community, “prison entry has been steady in the recent past”.
Keko said he did not know if offenders were being arrested and prosecuted.
He said 300-400 had been the highest number of inmates ever recorded there but this had declined recently.
He said that probably was the result of good community policing in the wards or, “people are committing offences but are not apprehended, arrested and prosecuted”.
“Another reason could be the mediation process in the villages was being fully utilised,” he said.
Speaking at the recent Rabaul district law and order committee meeting, Keko said since taking up office as Kerevat jail commander in mid-April, he had seen a big improvement in the performance of staff and inmates.   
 “We are now trying to go back to the basics of normal correctional institution practices that needed to be complied with and I am encouraging my officers to take those normal procedures and apply them to instil a better working environment and for us to be professional in our conduct so that our clients – the prisoners – can be appropriately reformed or rehabilitated knowing that we are doing our best to manage them properly.”
He said in the last seven weeks since becoming commanding officer, he had been pleased with the improvement in performance of his staff.