Two prisoners recently passed away from cancer due to leaking batteries from mobile phones hidden inside their body systems.

Fiji Corrections Service Commissioner Commander Francis Kean revealed this at a press conference at the Suva Remand Centre yesterday.

Commander Kean said the smuggling of contraband into Corrections Centres in Fiji continues to be a serious concern for the Fiji Corrections Service (FCS).

He also said that convicted prisoners and those in remand alike went to extreme lengths in order to smuggle some illegal items into the centres.

He said it was sad that all attempts to educate these prisoners on the consequences of their actions continued to fall on deaf ears.

Similarly, he said visitors to these prisoners also went to extreme lengths to try to smuggle in illegal contraband into the centres.

Commander Kean said they had managed to apprehend a few visitors who had been charged by the Police and currently had their cases before the courts.

“Our general advice to all visitors is to be on the right side of the law and comply to FCS visiting protocols. It’s not worth it plus most importantly you are not helping in our rehabilitation efforts towards bringing about positive changes in the character and behaviour of all prisoners.”

He said that they even had friends and family attempting to throw in contrabands over the prison walls.

Some, he said, had resorted to using public transport to throw contraband over the prison walls. However the FCS had adopted several strategies to keep abreast of these security threats.

One of them was the use of green nets below the walls to take all contrabands thrown over the prison walls.

“The prison officers on duty would check the green net to check for the contrabands thrown over the prison walls.”

Commander Kean said they were going to use the nets in all the Corrections Centres in the country.

He said they would also be using portable electronic body scanners to assist them in their daily duty of detecting the smuggling of illegal contrabands at the main gates of their 15 Centres.

The Commissioner was the first to be scanned at the Korovou Corrections Centre before the members of the media, who were his guests, were shown the new site of a 600 room Centre.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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