SOA for Malaysia

SOA is farewell by colleagues Iliseva Karusi and Nai Naqaravatu

Staff Officer Administration Acting ASP Salote Panapasa is attending a programme on Human Development Plan in Malaysia as part of the skills upgrade of FPCS management staff. The course funded by the Malaysian government under its Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme is being held in Langkawi. 

ASP Panapasa did her tatau to the Acting Commissioner of Prisons Auta Moceisuva after she was farewelled at an afternoon tea by her colleagues. Mr Moceisuva said the department is looking forward to her return especially with her new skills and knowledge.

Filling in as SOA in ASP Panapasa absence is POB Lemeki Rokovesa in the rank of Acting PPO.

PS: The tea was ready and the farewell speech had started. The emcee gave a hint that ASP Panapasa ‘may be’ flying out the next day. Why may be?  SOA at that very late hour (1630hrs) was still without a transit visa through Sydney. She was to fly out of Nausori at 7am the next day. She was visibly not altogether with her colleagues, although the afternoon tea was for her farewell. But the call came. The silence was deafening as all eyes were fixed on her. Then the joy salute. – August 08, 2008 caption.


Experience of a lifetime
By Sireli Dausiga
 
On the 5th of September 2008, I was so fortunate to be appointed to attend the launch of the Yellow Ribbon Project in Singapore. I was accompanied by Supervisor Northern Division ASP Jope Caginadaveta. As this was my trip outside of the Republic of Fiji Islands, I was so excited and spellbound as to what to expect riding in a Boeing 747 jet for the first time in my life. The feeling is just so exhilarating.

On my way to Nadi International Airport, I just couldn’t hold back my tears wishing if only my parents were alive to see what their eldest son has achieved in his career as a Correctional Officer. The feeling was overwhelming. I am grateful for the opportunity and the privilege to represent my country, the FPCS for the first time ever in my lifetime and it is an achievement that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
God has been good to me in my entire life, in my career and in my family. Praise be to the almighty for he has blessed me and enriched me spiritually, mentally and physically for this trip and not forgetting my years of growing up as a young man. 
The Singapore experience will be treasured to time indefinite and I know that the experiences I shared with my fellow correctional officers from around the globe will be one to remember in the years to come. 

The Yellow Ribbon Project was officially opened and launched by the Minister for Law & Second Minster for Home Affairs Mr. K. Shanmugan on Saturday and then again the Conference on Monday the 8th of September 2008. 
On Saturday the 6th of September 2008, the Yellow Ribbon Project was launched with a Music extravaganza from Folk Music to Hip Hop, Rhythm & Blues, Reggae and Pop Music. The music industry in Singapore brought in their music celebrities to come and promote the theme of the Yellow Ribbon Project which is Aftercare – A Collaborative Approach.

The audience was in the thousands. The entertainment centre was filled to capacity of 3000 people. Hundreds more were still trying to come into the EC. The community support is so overwhelming and encouraging. Ex offenders shared their experiences, offenders also shared theirs and so forth.

The reception from the public was one of commitment, love, and understanding. There were short video clips, which aimed at the heart of the program proper of giving second chances to ex offenders.

The reception from the public was overwhelming whenever an offender speaks, took part in an item, the public were behind this program and the atmosphere was very accommodating in deed.

The Conference proper began on Monday the 8th of September 08 and ended on the Tuesday 9TH OF September 08. Guest speakers from America, Australia, and New Zealand spoke on their experiences and the many rehab programs now in place that will enhance offender management and treatment in our Penal Institutions across the universe.

The following topics were presented and they are as follows:

1. Forging sustainable communities
2. Manalive – Attacking the violence in violent man in Prison
3. Family Justice System
4. Good Life Model – strength based ( Character of inmates)
5. Therapeutic Centres – Drug Addicts/Mental Patients

These topics were thought provoking and true. They deal with minor things in our daily lives. Yet we fail to address them at an early stage until it is too late to deal with them.

A guest speaker went on to say that the justice system was more concerned at punishing the offender rather then identifying the major problem and that is the violence that an offender has been living with for a very long time in his life.

He went on to say that the violence in man behind bars are learned and not inherited as is commonly accepted. Men on the inside have this macho idea that only the strong and the fittest survive on the inside, the rest is for sissy. 
The forging of sustainable communities cut both ways. It involves the community that the offender lives in (prison) and those on the outside, the community as a whole. These two communities are inter related and cannot be separated from one another. They co exist and supplement each other in order to survive.

The idea of Therapeutic Centres or TCs as commonly known in the States are facilities tailored made for Drug Addicts & Offenders suffering from Mental Disorders.

In these facilities, offenders are given professional help and assistance as how to deal with their drug related behaviours, mental sicknesses. These offenders are isolated from the general population for their own safety and security.

The Family Justice System is an idea that promotes the offenders family who are also victims of the whole cycle of violence, poverty, and family breakdowns. The Family Justice (FJS) ideology is that offenders’ family plays an important role in an offender life on the inside during incarceration as well as after discharge. 

The family needs all the assistance and support from responsible stakeholders to make life on the inside bearable and sentence serving more peaceable. Statistics shows when offender’s families are taken care off, the more chances that such offenders not re offending again, thus reducing recidivisms in the process. 

The Manalive theory is about attacking the violence in man. One of the speaker said that the justice system has failed miserably in addressing the problem that brought the offender to court in the first place. The problem was identified as the violence that a particular offender possesses is something that he learned while growing up in his neighbourhood.
Sessions are done in such a manner that inmates sit in a circle facing each other and told to accept the fact that they are violent to themselves, their families and the community as a whole.

Once they acknowledge, get the message, then the program gets started. There are questions that an offender needs to answer in order to inform that he is a violent man or woman and he is a threat to himself or herself and there is a need for him to be in this program. Video clips showed that the program works wonders for very violent offenders in the US of A, Australia, Great Britain and in some Asian countries.

Offenders are encouraged to accept, acknowledge the fact that they are violent and are not fit to live amongst other people in society. The trainers are the offenders themselves. Those who have gone through the program are then used to teach, inform and spread the program around their county, state and the country as a whole.