Farming a way out for North inmates

Submitted by nikid on Wed, 17/06/2009 - 9:19pm

The reform or transformation of a prisoner is a tough assignment. It depends a lot on whether the transformation will transpire from good to bad or from bad to worse.

The latter seemed to be the more popular of the two ideals and it being the bearer of bad news for many, also has the charm of being the well-liked of the two thoughts.

It is a fact and a true nature of the way the general public thinks of our sons, brothers, sisters and fathers behind the walls of our prison.

This can’t be denied and for many who have served their time, the re – introduction into society became a tough obligation that is often deemed an impossible task and one that will lead to isolation and the furtherment or the initiation of a career in the criminal world.

Being a criminal is a contented life for some. That is if you have the privilege of being involved in some sort of criminal activity in your life.

Life brings with it its worries, and from a criminal’s perspective it is matter of doing the crime and hoping to get away with it.

But getting away is a rare thing and for many of our citizens locked behind the walls of our prisons; this was the one thing that they failed in – getting away with their crimes.

This resulted in the massive overcrowding of our prisons and the numerous complaints received from behind the walls of our prisons alleging inhumane conditions and treatment received by the criminals.

Their story may seem fascinating, but the one thing that can’t be denied was the fact that they at one time or another have denied a family or two a happy life and caused terror amongst the public with their mischief and unaccepted exploits.

The blame however can not be directed towards the way the criminal or the men behind the bars think. For many it was peer pressure or the pressure you get from your friends – the demands to become a part of something that your peers are taking part in and to be accepted.

In most of our societies, this leads inevitably to a criminal act of some sort.

This is true in every housing estates or urban residential areas all over the country and lately the rural sector seemed to have woken up to the dawn of a criminal world.

And it is also true that our prisons are being populated by many from such neighborhoods and the majority of the people from the indigenous population too.

But on the island to the North of Viti Levu, the angle differs in the fact that many of the populace at the island prison in Vaturekuka came from the villages and farming communities in and around the three provinces that make up the Northern region of our country or Vanua Levu.

Confederated to the Tovata alliance, Vanua Levu has witnessed the true factor that bind this confederacy that is being one for all and all for one, an actuality that has became a binding issue behind the walls of Vaturekuka.

For Nadroga native, Simione Ere, the experience of working with his ‘dreu(s)’ has been a satisfying and a worthwhile factor since his posting to the Vaturekuka prison.

The Prison officer has the task of counseling the inmates and to explain the importance of reform to the convicts at the prison outside of Labasa.

Armed with a beautiful smile and a personality that suits his job, Ere describes his work as one that has bore fruit, satisfying to him and has gained the support of his fellow prison officers and the public as well.

A programme devised by the officers three years before the Yellow Ribbon Programme, became the fore runner of all the rehabilitation programmes at the Vaturekuka Prison and most probably all of the correctional facilities in the country.

Initiated on the 14th day of October 2005, the ‘Case Management Client’ Programme was aimed at the rehabilitation of the inmates and the support rendered to them once they live Vaturekuka Prison.

‘The programme mainly targets the treatment of an inmate once he lives Vaturekuka and to us this means the support we give each and everyone of our inmates and for us the people we have here were mainly from our villages and farming is part of their lives which was an issue that we took advantage of in our quest to reform a prisoner,