THE late South African President and well known anti-apartheid revolutionary politician Nelson Mandela once said “that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
Today in Fiji, what used to be called Fiji Prisons Service has changed to what we now call the Fiji Corrections Service.
Classified by many as where “criminals” are locked up, today the FCS is trying to change that view to be a place where “offenders” are rehabilitated, not a place where wrongs can be corrected but one where those under their care learn to do right and change for their betterment and that of the community they live in.
First prison
Fiji’s first prison was established in Levuka in 1874, the same year Fiji was ceded to Great Britain and was manned by only three people, totally different from corrections officers like what Fiji has today.
When it started, it was always meant to be a place to detain, punish and deter those who were sentenced from re-committing an offence.
At that time, prison was handled by the police force where they had a gaoler, a warder and a police sub-inspector.
Four years later under the British colony, lockups on Viti Levu and Vanua Levu were established, they were located wherever a magistrate was.
They were places where even those who violated native laws (iTaukei Laws) and defaulters in paying taxes were being sentenced.
As the numbers of those that needed to be jailed increased, the lockups were put under the responsibilities of the District Commissioners where native warders were employed to supervise prisoners in their work.
Those days, the lockups started as huts with reed fences.
There were some lockups made of stones, crushed coral and Fijian bure and it later developed to cell blocks, dormitories with walls and steel fences.
They had these establishments in about 15 centres with Labasa and Lautoka having the highest number of inmates when they began operation.
The Labasa and Lautoka centers not only cared for male inmates, women inmates also existed in the two centers.
Four of the original lockups remain today but in a more improved humane establishment to cater for inmates. They are the ones in Levuka, Taveuni, Ba and Labasa.
Women’s prison
As time went on, women inmates also increased and in 1884, the women’s prison was established.
Unlike today where there is a separate facility for the women, female prisoners were billeted with the male then.
“They were however strictly kept apart with no contacts and with a matron assigned to supervise the female prisoners,” FCS public relations officer Kuini Waqasavou said.
She said these female prisoners were kept in rural lockups and came under the responsibility of the police constabulary.
In 1966, the facility in Levuka was made to cater for all female prisoners.
Ten years later they were transferred to Suva where a dormitory structure was erected to house them.
In Suva, the general administration for the women inmates was done by the officer in charge at the Suva Prison.
Changes came into effect in 1983 and this led to the administration of the women’s prison being separated from the Suva Prison administration.
This saw the women’s facility in Suva having their own officer in charge.
But these jails did not deter some from committing crimes and inmates continued to pour into correction facilities.
With limited facilities the continuous increase in inmates resulted in overcrowding of the facility in Suva.
Male inmates had to use the women’s dormitory and women inmates were being transferred to the Condemn Block.
“On December 11, 2007, women’s prison shifted to its new site which goes in line with the change from containment to corrections (rehabilitation) and also the implementation of the 2006 Corrections Act.
“The shift is an eye-opener and challenging to the officers on how best we can improve on work performance and roles to save lives. As of today we have been allowed to be in possession of the St Elizabeth Building which was under St Giles Hospital. It has now housed the chapel, counselling room, kitchen and dining house, nursery, the doctor’s room and a dorm that houses five inmates — (humility dorm).
“There is another building which houses 16 inmates but the building has the capacity to house 35 inmates. That clearly spells that we can now house 40 inmates as with the old one we can only house 28 inmates,” Mrs Waqasavou said.
Establishment of other men’s prisons
Two incidents in the overcrowded Suva Prison led to the establishment of a Prison Farm in Naboro.
These incidents included a riot in 1963, where the Naboro medium facility was used to cater for 96 inmates.
Mrs Waqasavou said it was mainly used for first and second offenders between the ages of 17 and 23 years with sentences less than nine months.
A year later, a proper prison infrastructure was constructed in Labasa which accommodated 48 inmates.
In 1969, the continued increase in inmates saw the first stage of the minimum security facility opened to cater for 80 inmates. This was done in March and five months later, the second stage was built taking the total capacity of inmates at the minimum facility to 160 inmates.
The Maximum Prison was opened in 1973 and took care of 60 inmates initially.
After the establishment of the Naboro Maximum facility, FCS started to transfer the bakery from the Suva Prison to the maximum facility and established the Naboro poultry farm.
That was the beginning of the work to try and rehabilitate inmates and in 1988 inmates constructed the upper floors of the Suva facility as part of rehabilitation program with two dormitories in one block.
Juvenile offenders (under the age of 16 years) were billeted at the Suva Prison from 1925 before they were segregated and taken to Makuluva Island in 1929.
In 1938, 17 juveniles were transferred from the island to a reformatory at 9miles and in 1976 the Nasinu complex was completed by the Public Works Department.
From what used to be seen as a degrading service from the FCS, today Commissioner of Corrections Lieutenant Colonel Ifereimi Vasu confirmed that renovations were completed at the Nasinu facility and they were now working at the minimum facility at Naboro to be on par with the UN standard of prisons.
Changes have also seen the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems in all facilities around the country to assist officers in their work.
Organisational structures
“One of the things I learned when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself, I could not change others.”
Just as Mandela said in his quotes above, the FCS continued to make changes not only in their facilities but also in the structure of the organisation.
From the four positions that initially looked after inmates when the Fiji Prisons was established, the organisation started to set up new positions to cater for the growing number of inmates and facilities to care for offenders.
In 1964, a position of controller was established to substitute Superintendent and looked after the overall wellbeing of the FCS.
In 1968, supervisors were appointed for the Naboro facilities and one was appointed to oversee all divisions whereby the Northern and Western Division supervisors all came under the Central Eastern Division supervisor.
In 1980, staff officers were implemented where three departments — Operations, Administration and Farm had staff officers.
Three years later, the titles of Controller and Deputy Controller was substituted with Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Prisons.
From the 1960s to the late 1970s the institution continued to train corrections officers through crash courses.
“This was done in an effort to supplement a demoralised work force,” Mrs Waqasavou said.
She said training was badly neglected and there was no proper training.
“In 1979, another riot in prison made Government realised the need to reorganise the neglected prison service.
1981 saw the establishment of the staff training centre which was set up adjacent to the Suva Prison and in 1983, the college which now stands at Naboro was established.”
Mrs Waqasavou said after this improvement, training was then pursued with new vigour both in the quality of new programs and new facilities.
“Officers were identified and sent overseas for training with the view that they would inject new life into the training system.”
As they work towards a better environment for inmates, the FCS is also reminded of Walt Disney’s saying “You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world but it requires the people to make a reality’.
As of last weekend, FCS was caring for 1723 inmates.
These numbers change every day as inmates who finish their terms are returned to their homes and new inmates are taken into the Corrections facilities after being handed prison sentences from the courts.
As they continue to try and rehabilitate inmates, they are continuously reminded of Mandela’s quotes that “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead,” and they also continue to try and inform inmates of the saying which says “Do not resist the world, for you are from beyond the world, the world is no longer a prison for you but the place for you to contribute.”
