A team of senior officers led by the Commissioner of Prisons Ioane Naivalurua is in Hong Kong with many questions and an abundance of curiosity about the Correction system in the former British colony. 

The senior officers are on a nine-day comparative study tour to learn first-hand how the Hong Kong Correctional Service operates and how the best practices there could be adopted or assimilated in Fiji. 

The tour members include the Director of Education, Training and Rehabilitation, ASP Salote Panapasa, Supervisor Western, ASP Viliame Bulewa, Staff Officer Research and Planning, ASP Oliver Fisher, and Nasinu Officer in CHargee, ASP Hari Nath. 

Under the programme the team will be visiting various facilities including the training academy on the island. Hong Hong was reverted back to Chinese rule in 1999 after it was a British colony for over 100years. 

One of the main objectives of the tour is to exchange ideas and to compare how the two correctional system operates as well as identifying effective and innovative practices to reduce recidivism. In Hong Kong the team will be hosted by the HKCS. 

Fiji being also a former British colony will have many similarities in its procedures and processes but the reversion back to Chinese rule could have had some impact on their Correctional system. 

It is hope that when the officers return they will try to formulate a plan to implement the best practices they learned.

www.corrections.org.fj