Prisoners and detainees who were on leave of absence for medical reasons were removed on Wednesday from hospitals in Port Moresby to be taken back to Bomana Correctional facility.
This comes after the call made by Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill declaring a total ban on the prisoners leave of absence.
This came into effect on the 05th of January 2018, along with further instructions issued yesterday in a statement by Correctional Service Commissioner, Michael Waipo.
The Commissioner confirmed that the CS officers were sent to hospitals to remove and transport all prisoners and detainees back to the Bomana Correctional Institute.
Waipo said the actions by CS officers were directives issued by him to carry out strict instructions to effect the Prime Minister's decisions for Commanding Officers to remove all detainees on medical leave and have them transferred back to the correctional institute immediately.
Further instructions also included:
1. The stop in the issuing of LOA’s to any detainee.
2. For reports to be compiled on all LOA’s issued in 2017.
This should include the name of the officer authorising the LOA, name of the detainee, reason for LOA, location where detainee went to and name of officer or officers supervising the detainee.
3. For commanding officers to arrange with provincial health CEO’s to arrange for doctors to visit and conduct medical checks for detainees at the institution.
4. All approval for LOA’s by commanding officer are now withdrawn and;
5. All regional assistant commissioners to take full responsibility to approve LOA’s in consultation and in coordination with commanding officers.
“If anything is happening along that way, it would be a response to instructions or directions that came from the Prime Minister, subsequent from me also in a statement released on Tuesday,” Waipo adds.