“This Government has your back.”
Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama stated this while speaking to corrections officers at the Korovou Prison Compound this afternoon where he highlighted that annual financial commitment from his government to the Fiji Corrections Service has raised the salaries of officers and improved equipment and facilities.
Bainimarama today commissioned the first ever chapel at the Korovou Prison Compound and also their new transport unit office.
The chapel cost more than $140,000 and was funded by the corrections officers. The transport office which cost $142,245 was funded by government.
Bainimarama says they constructed the first women’s corrections facility outside Suva and have brought this institution’s practices in line with international standards including the introduction of community based correction systems.
He says this year, half a million dollars is going towards the construction of the new 600 personnel main cell block to ensure the officers and the inmates have appropriate facilities.
The Prime Minister says they are striving for a criminal justice system and a correction service that succeeds in making for a safer and more compassionate country.
Bainimarama says he is proud that over a two year period the recidivism rate in Fiji is only 1.06 percent, one of the lowest in the world. He says they see the successes of many Fijians who have served the sentences fairly and have become law abiding Fijians.
The Prime Minister also highlighted that the Fiji Corrections Service has been a leader in the adoption of COVID safe practices where some of the officers worked in isolation within corrections facilities for five to six weeks and some for eight weeks.
He says those weeks away from families in the service of the institution undoubtedly helped slow the spread of COVID-19 until enough Fijians were vaccinated.
Bainimarama also revealed that when the ambulance driving teams had to enter quarantine as a result of exposure to the virus, one corrections officer stepped up as a substitute ambulance driver to transport ill patients to treatment centres.
