Engage inmates in community, says judge

By ANGELINE KARIUS
JUSTICE Panuel Mogish has urged the Correctional Services Institute to engage low-risk prisoners in community-oriented projects as part of their rehabilitation.
Mogish said it was about time the institute became creative in rehabilitating prisoners.
He said community oriented tasks such as a clean-a-thon was one way a prisoner could feel being part of the community.
Mogish said one could not fully assess the full rehabilitation of a prisoner when he or she was only kept within the jail.
He said he had witnessed a big improvement after visiting Kavieng jail in New Ireland province where prisoners were given the opportunity to clean up around the township areas and the court house.
“After engaging prisoners to work in their surrounding communities most have realised where they have gone wrong in life and were willing to make a change,” he said.
“The best way to rehabilitate someone is to work in the community.
“They (prisoners) should not only be kept behind bars and fed three times a day. They must be allowed to give something back to the community.”
Mogish recommended that a similar activity should be undertaken by the institute to help build the confidence and assurance that when they were released they could rebuild their lives.
He said clean-up contracts allocated by the National Capital District Commission could be given to such institutes.