Report cites weakness in jail security system

By FRANK SENGE KOLMA
THE Correctional Services has become the weakest link in the national security and law and order sector, according to a report detailing the January 2010 daring escape by William Nanua Kapris from Bomana prison.
The service is severely undermanned. And by the end of this year, it would have only 300 warders nationwide to cater for the nation’s 6,000 prisoners.
It is already in no position to provide support in call-out duties such as providing assistance during the 2012 national election for which it had been allocated K9 million in the budget.
Multi-faceted problems afflict this institution.
The Correctional Services manpower ceiling is 2,400 but that had dwindled to 1,400 due to retirement, retrenchment, deaths and resignation. Of this, half would be compulsorily retired by the end of the year.
With administration and civilian officers removed, custodian officers or warders strength would be up to 300 personnel.
A policy submission to cabinet earlier this year pointed out that the shortage of staff had created a situation where officers lacked capacity and could not perform effectively because they were overworked, under-resourced and tested to the limit.
This created a dangerous situation where mass breakouts from the country’s prisons of hardcore criminals were a very real possibility, the submission stated.
“Further, there is a lack of specialists within the CS such as qualified medical doctors, chaplain, psychiatrist, social workers, agriculturists, tradesmen and support staff to contain prisoners and to rehabilitate them.”
Due to lack of its own specialist personnel, prisoners with psychological problems had been sent to the Laloki Psychiatric Hospital from which six patients escaped in October last year. Two were killed.
Also due to lack of medical facilities, Kapris was sent to the Port Moresby General Hospital where he escaped in 2008. His walkout in January 2010 was assisted in part because many senior officers were attending to the case of a juvenile who had an epileptic fit and were absent from the Separate Confinement Unit where Kapris and fellow escapees were kept for a critical three hours.
The CS has no intelligence and welfare unit.
The cabinet submission stated in part: “In a hypothetical case where there is an outbreak of riots or civil disturbance in four or five centres or during the election, the CS would be deemed non-operational as it may be forced to deal with a situation inside jail or if called out, its manpower and capacity would be rendered unavailable.”