Overcrowding at the Labasa Corrections Centre is forcing the service to transfer inmates to facilities in Viti Levu.
With a holding capacity of 86 at Vaturekuka Prison, the institution currently houses 184 inmates, well above the number of inmates the facility should hold.
Acting Commissioner of the Corrections Service, Salote Panapasa, said at a ground-breaking ceremony in Vaturekuka that the overcrowding issue only affected Labasa.
She pleaded with Labasa’s High Court judge, Justice Usaia Ratruvili, at the same event, for the judiciary to consider non-custodial sentences for first offenders.
“I believe with his assistance the courts could also impose non-custodial sentences on first offenders and to non-trivial (nontrivial or trivial?) cases to help with this situation.”
Ms Panapasa said that last week 20 inmates were sent to Suva and more would be sent, “but in a gradual process as we also keep in mind the number of inmates in those facilities”.
She said a factor contributing to overcrowding was the inability to house inmates in different rooms “where remand suspects are kept away from convicted prisoners like we have in Lautoka and Suva”.
“In Labasa, they are all kept in one block although the women are kept separately,” Ms Panapasa said, adding plans were in the pipeline for a new facility for women in remand at Vaturekuka.
