Pokanis plans to build new juvenile centre

By DYLAN MURRAY
CORRECTIONAL Services commissioner Stephen Pokanis says his department plans to build juvenile detention centres for prisoners classified as minors.
Pokanis said at present, prisoners or remandees that fell under the juvenile category were being held in the same prison facilities as adult prisoners.
He said CS was in consultation with the Department of Justice and Attorney-General (DJAG) to begin the project.
“If all goes well, the DJAG will establish a facility at Bomana for juvenile prisoners. When this happens, this will be the first independent juvenile facility, completely separated from the adult prisoners,” Pokanis said.
The commissioner said he was confident that DJAG would come on board to assist and were looking at working with other partners and stakeholders as well.
He added that juveniles currently had their own dormitories but were still sharing facilities and space with adult prisoners. He said one of the concerns was that they wanted a separate facility for juveniles as they needed a specific rehabilitation programme.
“What kind of work juvenile prisoners should do, what kind of physical and recreational activities they can do; what kind of religious activities they can do – we want to make it like a school, where we keep them away from the adult population and still have programmes to better them,”he said.