THE Fiji Corrections Service (FCS) is planning to relocate the ageing Korovou Prison to Naboro, saying the current facility is no longer able to cope with the inmate population and has deteriorated significantly.
FCS Acting Commissioner Auta Moceisuva said Naboro remained the country’s key corrections site and offered enough land for future expansion.
Speaking during an interview with The Fiji Times online portal The Lens@177, Mr Moceisuva said Government was not looking at building an entirely new prison elsewhere but was instead focusing on expanding Naboro.
“Naboro is still relevant because it’s got a big piece of land and the infrastructure was there,” he said.
“I can’t say that there will be a huge investment by government to build a big facility, but we have plans to have a bigger facility in Naboro.”
He said the conditions at Korovou Prison had worsened over time and temporary repairs had failed to resolve longstanding problems.
“Korovou Prison is the oldest prison in Fiji, and the facility cannot cater for the population that is there.
“So the whole place has been infested. When it rains or there is flooding, the whole part of the accommodation area is flooded.
“There had been some band-aid solutions that we tried over the years, but it couldn’t be fix.
“We are now talking with the National Strategic Planning of Government to shift the whole facility to Naboro because there is adequate land over there.”
Mr Moceisuva said relocating Korovou Prison formed part of the Corrections Service’s long-term infrastructure strategy to improve prison conditions and accommodate future inmate numbers.
