Officer: Delay in cases frustrated prisoners

 SOME of the 42 prisoners who overpowered prison guards at Buiebi jail in Mendi to escape, may have been frustrated over the delay in their court cases, a prison official says.

Acting Correctional Service Commissioner David Melange said: “The remand prisoners had been in prison for up to five years due to delays in processing their court documents and having their trial dates set.”

While a full report on the mass prison escape will be released soon, 30 of those who escaped were remand prisoners who were waiting for their cases to be called for trial in the National Court. 

The other 12 were convicted prisoners serving jail sentences.

“The CS is only duty-bound to oversee security management of prisoners, their well-being and rehabilitation, while anything to do with their court cases is between the offenders, the other parties and the courts,” Melange said.

However, he stopped short of using the prisoners’ frustration as an excuse for the escape, opting to instead await the outcome of the final report.

The detainees overpowered the two guards looking after them and dashed for freedom at around 3pm three days after Christmas.

Melange said appropriate disciplinary action would be taken against prison officers at Buiebi if the final report finds them to be negligent or ignorant of their duties.

He said there was the possibility of a collaboration between the officers and the prisoners as well.