By Amanda Ilaitia
The participation of detainees in rehabilitation projects depend on their security rankings, currently these projects strictly involve Male’s Minimum-Security Unit and the Female’s Wing.
Bomana Correctional Service in Port Moresby engages mostly low risk detainees in various projects that will equip them with basic money making skills that they can harness when released back in into their local communities.
Acting Manageress for Projects, Senior Inspector Georgina Nelson, told EMTV Online about these projects and various trainings the participants undertook in the last two years.
These projects or sections are run by skilled Sergeants of the Correctional Service.
“The current projects we have in the male’s minimum-security unit for the industry section, we have mechanical, plumbing, carpentry, welding, agriculture and livestock (poultry, cattle, piggery) goat farming is another proposed livestock project for 2023 that is in its initial stages,” she said.
According to Sergeant Nelson the industrial sections are not money-making projects. Occasional sales from the agriculture and livestock sections generate little income.
She said, for projects involving female detainees they have a bakery, tailoring section, handcrafts, gardening and floriculture.
Apart from running these projects, the institution also allows training for various projects.
Sergeant Nelson said, the tailoring course which was held for 6 months last year was sponsored by the Small Medium Enterprises Corporation, this involved 3 staff,5 female detainees and 2 males from MSU, an additional skill they learnt during the training was book keeping.
Another training was also conducted for the bakery by the Australian One Tribe Ministry.
As mentioned by Sergeant Nelson, upon request the projects are only supported by the Papua New Guinea Correctional Service Department.
However, the skills imparted help build the lives of detainees when they rejoined their communities.
Correctional Service Institutions around the country are rehabilitation centers as this is where people who have done wrong go to be rehabilitated to rejoin their communities once they serve their time for their wrong doings.
