Who are they, where are they from, and how can we stop them going in?



by Solomoni Biumaiono

The Commissioner of Prisons, Brigadier Iowane Naivalurua was looking at a report regarding a prisoner who had escaped from a working party at the Suva Cemetery the previous afternoon, when we were ushered into his office on the morning of 25 April.


“The escapee is Fijian and 26 years old. He is serving a 6 year sentence and due for discharge in 2012. The prisoner has previous convictions,” Brigadier Naivalurua read from the brief.
Thinking aloud, the man in charge asked himself a question administrators at the tail end of our judicial process – the Prisons Department, regularly ask themselves.
“Why does he keep coming back? Its either we did not do our job well the first time round or was it that the family did not accept him?” he asked.
“Why did he escape?” we asked.

Maybe he just needed a bit of a break,” Brigadier Naivalurua replied.
Moving on, Brigadier Naivalurua who became Commissioner after the 2006 coup, laments the wretched way prisoners have been treated and are considered by society.
“They are still human beings. They didn’t fall from Mars or from any other planet and landed in my courtyard,” he says.
“They came from somewhere and you know what, the stigma is so bad, the stigma associated with prisoners, that even their families completely isolate them.”
So who are and where exactly do the people who become ‘prisoners’ come from?

Records show, and it is general knowledge that the highest number of inmates are Fijians, consistently making up over 70 per cent of the prison population.
Of the 1024 prisoners held at the six prison complexes around Fiji on 31 December 2006, 781 were Fijians, 184 Indians, 31 part Chinese, 17 Rotumans, 2 part Europeans and 9 were of other races.
Prisoners usually come from housing divisions and often crowded neighbourhoods and settlements.
A 2008 residential area analysis by Mai Life reveals the ‘hotbed’ areas that make up the prison population throughout Fiji.
These are Banaras in Lautoka with 23, Vatuwaqa with 22, Raiwai with 20, 19 from the wider Tamavua area, Raiwaqa, Nadera and Ba each had 18, 17 from Lami, 16 from Kalabu, Sigatoka had 15 while Narere, Nadroga and Rewa had 14 each, and Nadawa rounds off the Top Ten List with 13 prisoners.

Brigadier Naivalurua says prison numbers depend on the police and Judiciary’s efforts to solve crimes, apprehend suspects and conclude the court process.
The number of prisoners released within a year, and the rate at which the released prisoners re-offend also contribute to the prison numbers.
Mai Life also found that the majority of prisoners have had some form of education.
The majority of prisoners between 2001 and 2006 had received in varying levels, a secondary school education.
Of the 1024 prisoners in Fiji in 2006, 602 had attained secondary school level while 373 only reached primary school.
Prisoners who had a secondary level education accounted for more than 50 per cent of the prison population numbers between 2001 and 2006 while those who only reached primary school accounted for about 40 per cent.
The root causes that see a person make their way to prison varies but the family background is a major factor says Brigadier Naivalurua.

He says family breakdown, peer pressure, poverty, the lack of wholesome social events, ethnic cultural obligations and lack of good role models in social structures all contribute to the problem.
“In most occasions authoritative figures do not practice what they preach allowing young people to experiment with dangerous activities making them vulnerable to imprisonment,” Brigadier Naivalurua said.
He said these usually result in common offences like simple theft, drug use, assault, shoplifting, larceny and eventually serious offences like sexual offences and robbery with violence or even murder.
Salvation Army’s Prison Aftercare Society officer, Captain Maika Ranamalo, told Mai Life that peer pressure is a major factor in the high number of Fijians being incarcerated.
A former prisoner himself and former member of the notorious Green Army gang in the mid 1970s Mr. Ranamalo said the attitudes of Fijian youths outside their homes, differs from that they usually show in front of their parents and families.
“The families usually instil within them good values and morals but as soon as they step out of their homes to their peer groups or gang, they put all these aside in order to be accepted by their friends,” he said.
Religion it seems, can also play a crucial factor.

At the end of 2006, 463 prisoners, the highest number, declared that they belonged to the Methodist Church, 124 said they were Punjabis, 117 were Hindu, 93 belonged to the Pentecostal Church, 91 belonged to the All Nations Church, 30 were Muslims, 24 were Anglicans, 23 Sikh while 25 said they didn’t belong or subscribed to any religious denomination. In 2005, 100 prisoners belonged to the Catholic church.
There were 10 prisoners who belonged to the Assemblies of God Church, 8 belonged to the Apostle Church, 7 were Jehovah’s Witnesses, 6 Latter Day Saints, 2 Seventh Day Adventists and 1 belonging to the Word Church.
To this effect the Prisons Department and the Fiji Police Force have engaged religious organisations as their main partners in rehabilitation and community policing efforts.
Police engaged religious organisations after discovering that the most heinous crimes like rape, murder and sexual abuse account for 30 per cent of all crimes committed in Fiji. They classify these as emotionally motivated crimes.
The major crime motivating factor however is a person’s economic circumstance which accounts for 57 per cent of all crimes committed in Fiji.
The top ten crimes of the last 6 years are all economically motivated crimes headed by Theft, followed by Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm,  together with House Breaking, Damaging Property, Other Breaking Offences, Robbery With Violence, Burglary, Criminal Trespass, Larceny in Dwelling House and Rape and Attempted Rape.

According to Police records, Fijians account for the most number of arrest at 58 per cent, with Indians accounting for 39 per cent while other races make up 3 per cent of total arrest.
Police record shows that between 1997 and 2006, most offenders were adults (25 years and above) who account for 67 per cent of all offenders.
Youths (between 17 and 24 years) account for 31 per cent of total offenders while juveniles (between 10 to 16 years) account for 2 per cent.
Prison statistics further reveal that most prisoners are serving ‘short’ sentences or are imprisoned for crimes that do not carry heavy sentences.
In 2006, the majority of prisoners were imprisoned from between 1 to 6 months and 6 to 12 months categories. It was the same from 2001 to 2005.
Prisons authorities recently introduced case management and sentence planning programs to complement jointly sponsored rehabilitation programs with the vanua and religious organisations.
Brigadier Naivalurua said past rehabilitation efforts failed to address the fundamental problems that face released prisoners and ex-prisoners alike.
“The regular perception of society and past governments that rehabilitation should be focused on the acquirement of agricultural skills to compel offenders back to the villages may now be inapplicable,” says Brigadier Naivalurua.
“This is because most offenders are from urban areas, and are usually third or fourth generation urban dwellers who have never been exposed or will not be properly accustomed to village life. In some instances even their parents and guardians have never visited the village.”

“You cannot change a human being through technology, it has to be done by human beings themselves.”
The Prisons authorities will be launching a major public relations campaign as part of their rehabilitative efforts with the concept being that they release the prisoners and ex-prisoners from their ‘second prison’.
“We call it the second prison because this is where most of their future is decided. Outside of jail. Outside of the first prison,” Brigadier Naivalurua says.
The stigma and the general rejection prisoners face from their families, spouse and the society at large contributes to the re-offending rate.
The Prisons Department has set up capacity building exercises for serving prisoners who are tutored by their fellow inmates, some of whom are well educated.
These include former public relations specialist Josefa Nata, Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) Unit officer Ovini Baleinamau and former naval commander Francis Kean to name a few.
Brigadier Naivalurua said this is to prepare prisoners for their release back into their communities as well as arming them with skills they could use to seek paid employment in the future.
The Police have also revamped their Community Policing Unit, focussing more resources at crime prevention.

CPU deputy director Acting Assistant Superintendent Anare Masitabua says they are focused on economically and socially developing the lives of the various communities they target.
Two major operations launched at Vaturova, Vanua Levu and Navosa targeting rural Fijian communities, particularly drug farmers, has worked beyond their expectations says Masitabua.
The two operations worked at decreasing the reliance of these communities on marijuana farming, trying to provide them with alternatives.
In urban areas, the CPU has teamed up with stakeholders like religious organisations, community leaders and the general public to combat crimes.
The challenges are huge, but the crime issue will never be solved by simply throwing people in prison. Knowing who they are where they are from is a good first step.