‘Focus on remanded prisoners’

DEPARTMENT of Justice and Attorney-General secretary Dr Eric Kwa says the government spends so much on 2,000 convicted prisoners but nothing was done for the 3,000 remanded prisoners in PNG.
“Why are we spending so much money on this small number of people that do not count in the 8.5 million population we have in the country?” Kwa said.
“In the last five years, the law and justice sector spent K5 billion just to attend to the 2,000 people than looking at ways we can come up in communities where victims and relatives of victims are to restore peace and find ways to settle them.”
Kwa said so much attention and resources had to be given to the few people who were in the prison yet “we have not find ways how best we can quickly remove the 3,000 waiting in the prisons.
“We are now finding ways to work with other law agencies, health sectors, police, social sectors and family violence unit what ideas we can come up with together, create prevention strategies in the communities for victims and others who can live without fear in their own homes.
“Foreigners will say corruption is the root problem in the country but when you look it critically, every citizen will say that the biggest violence in the country is murder.”