No phones in prison, says Kerevat boss

Islands, Normal
Source:

The National , Tuesday, May 31, 2011

THE public in East New Britain have been warned not to give mobile phones to their imprisoned relatives at Kerevat jail or they could be held responsible for aiding the escape of a detainee from custody.
Jail commander Kiddy Keko said if there was evidence to prove someone had supplied an inmate with a mobile phone to enable communication to aid the prisoner escape, they could be held responsible.
He said mobile phones were prohibited at Kerevat and his management would be looking at ways to help prisoners to communicate with relatives when they needed to.
He said all communications would be closely monitored by wardens.
Keko said Kerevat jail was situated outside the network coverage area of Telikom and, as such, there were no systems in place to allow the institution to put up extra phone lines.
Keko, who was previously manager operations at Bomana Correctional Institution, said Kerevat faced an acute shortage of officers.
He said the jail had a staff ceiling of 114 officers and it desperately needed 50 more officers.
He said the administration was using every available resource to operate.