PNG Correctional Services

Officials revealed that the suspected case, who is an inmate, was taken in for testing and isolation last week Friday.

This prompted the Bomana Correctional Services to conduct voluntarily COVID testing today for inmates and CS personnel at the Minimum Security Unit.

PNG CS Commissioner Stephen Pokanis, was first in line to get tested.

Commissioner Pokanis said the COVID-19 operations lead by Deputy Operations, have taken precautionary measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in prisons.

Commissioner Stephen Pokanis said K100,000 was allocated in 2020 to each correctional facility in the country to maintain their houses.

“Ok disla K100,000 em blo meintenens; ino meintenens tasol, mipla laik involvim ol karabus na ol woda we ol i gat disla teknikol skils, bai ol mekim wok blo mipla yet,” he stated. (This K100,000 is not only for maintenance, we want to involve inmates and warders with the technical know-how to do the job for us.)

The Health training started on Tuesday 3^rd November and was led by Chief Inspector Napina Yumb, CS Director of Health Services which ended on Friday 6^th November.

Whilst opening the training, ICRC Head of Mission in PNG, Dominik Urban, said that one of the main activities of ICRC is to ensure that the conditions and treatment of detainees meet international standards. He said it is important to ICRC that all detainees have access to health which is of the same level to that provided in the community.

The assault was reported to Commissioner Pokanis by lawyers representing Kaiwi, after they visited their client at the CS Test Compound, located at the CS Training College.

In a press conference today, Commissioner of the PNG Correctional Service Stephen Pokanis, confirmed 25-year old remandee Bhosip Kaiwi was physically assaulted by CS officers after he was taken to the CS Isolation facility, known as the Test Compound, at the CS Training College in Bomana.

A new partnership between the PNG Correctional Services and PNG Settlement Community People’s Foundation Inc allows for them to come out into the communities to raise awareness.

Given the theme, “Your freedom is important and there’s no freedom in prison”, prisoners have the opportunity to talk about common issues like violence but more importantly, about life in prison.

CS and PNG SCPF believe that high-risk prisoners talking directly with their peers in crime hotspots is another way to minimise law and order issues.