Prisons in the country are facing limited resources to house inmates and with more people being found guilty if crimes and sent to the prison facilities, this limited resource is now a major concern.
These include items like beddings not enough to cater for inmates and prison cubical spaces to accommodate the high number of inmates.
This situation has forced Papua New Guinea (PNG) Correctional Services (CS) to move prisoners for their better care and security.
The Buimo Prison in Lae Morobe Province, which accommodates almost 1, 000 prisoners is one such facility facing this issue, and is in a critical stage of being exhausted of its resources.
The Port Moresby CS facility at Bomana is another, which is currently overflowing with 700 to 800 prisoners and still taking in new inmates to serve their time.
CS Commissioner Stephen Pokanis stressed that it is important to maintain services and reduce the number of inmates through most appropriate lawful acts.
“There are a lot of national and provincial development projects that tend to exhaust the nation’s budget. This I understand and intend to use whatever resource I have sufficiently,” said Mr. Pokanis.
“Buimo Prison now is transporting prisoners to the highlands prisons because it is unable to accommodate more.”
He also added that the number of convicted criminals and inmates on remand are equally high in the prison facilities; therefore, he said the courts must process the cases of the ones on remand quicker so that the ones found not to be guilty of any crime, can leave and make up space.