Jail’s reputation compromised

LAST week, the country’s Bomana jail’s dirty laundry was aired when an investigation into the escape of 10 dangerous remandees, during Independence celebrations, revealed that educated prisoners were controlling the institute’s management.
We have heard and read little snippets from time to time about the questionable and suspicious conduct of officers at Bomana but thanks to celebrity inmates Tommy Baker and the then late William Nanua Kapris, the rot in the justice system – the Correctional Services to be more precise – has been laid bare.
The country’s leading correctional facility has now earned a reputation as a den of corruption and immorality simply because of the actions of a few.
Apparently money will buy just about anything from loyalty, silence and favours of every description.
The National reported that the prison official was sacked for allowing Baker to escape from Port Moresby General Hospital in 2018 without being referred to police to also conduct its investigations.
Another incident worth mentioning is when police charged a female prison officer for corruption over allegations that she had in effect been in a sexual relationship with prisoner Kapris in exchange for money over an extended period of time.
The married officer was alleged to have visited him for sex on at least 15 occasions on the pretext of providing welfare assistance to him.
The ease and regularity with which a prisoner was able to carry on the affair with a female officer, begs the question, who else was in on this and how far does the deceit and complicity go? Over the five years that jail has been the setting for some of the most contentious events which have drawn an entirely negative image of the country’s penal system, and the justice system as a whole.
It is abundantly clear that the correctional services provided by the state need to be overhauled and restructured.
The way jails are run in PNG is a harrowing indictment on the failure of government and prison authorities to exercise control over the nation’s criminal elements.
Bomana’s reputation has been compromised.
The security provided at the jail cannot be taken as that of a high standard. The individuals who work at that institution will now be seen in a different light.
It’s almost certain that at some point in time the jail’s hierarchy would have been aware of the misconduct of one of its officers.
Whether they chose to turn a blind eye or passively participated by their slowness in reaction is open to speculation.
This can only be set straight by a full and open inquiry by an independent investigatory body.
Today too many departments and state institutions are allowed to operate virtually unchecked and without scrutiny on their accountability and transparency.
When they are scrutinised and found to be wanting, the outcomes are usually lost in a sea of rhetoric and promised punitive action.
What the Kapris and Baker saga illustrates is that there is collusion from people within the system to evade, point in the wrong direction and take advantage of the ignorance and indifference from those in authorities. This is the real crime being committed.
If our jails and other institutions cannot be seen by the people as pillars of integrity then what hope do we have of expecting the country to prosper when the attitudes exhibited by those in authority and positions of power run counter to that ideal?