CHANGING public attitudes towards former prisoners is one of the biggest challenges facing the Fiji Corrections Service (FCS).
FCS Acting Commissioner Auta Moceisuva said community acceptance was critical to reducing reoffending.
Speaking during an interview with The Fiji Times online portal The Lens@177, Mr Moceisuva said many people still viewed prisons only as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation.
“I think the most difficult thing that society has, is a perception of the stigma,” he said.
“Stigma of those that have been imprisoned.
“Majority of those that we have conversed with, they still hold this view that the prison service is based on the penological philosophy of containment, rather than moving to rehabilitation.
“Because rehabilitation actually needs upskilling, reskilling, and reforming the prisoners through the programs that we implement inside. And these programs have an influence on the behaviour of the inmates.
“Once they have been assessed to be of good behaviour, work productivity, cooperating with the authority, and helping in the general wellbeing of the prisoner himself, then he is ready to be released to the community.
“And I think on the part of the community, they need to remove the stigma that prison is a bad place.”
He said if vanua and the church played it’s role, and if the support mechanism in society worked well, then there were chances of prisoners to be successfully reintegrated back to society.
Mr Moceisuva said successful rehabilitation extended beyond prison walls and depended on families, communities, employers and traditional institutions working together to help former inmates rebuild their lives.
