150 inmates work daily: Inside Naboro prison

Four hundred and sixty-seven inmates are currently held at the Naboro Corrections Centre along Queens Road.

150 of them are out working every day, earning between $3 and $4 daily in jobs ranging from farming to baking and joinery.

The figures were shared on Friday during a media tour of Naboro, Fiji's largest corrections facility, which houses inmates across four institutions — maximum, medium, minimum, and a pre-release centre.

Fiji Corrections Service officer Alevio Turaganivalu said inmates are deployed Monday to Saturday, working nine-hour shifts across what the service calls Small Business Units, or SBUs.

"They work in all the SBUs, and they've been paid $4 a day — and in some SBUs, $3 a day," he said.

"Upon their release, they will take all that money with them."

Fiji Corrections Service officers show members of the media the operations of the poultry farm at Naboro Prison.

Photo: Talei Roko

Over 5,000 chickens are being raised at the Fiji Corrections Service poultry farm in Naboro Prison.

Photo: Kaneta Naimatau

Cupboards and Chairs made by the Innmates at the Joinery Unit at FCS Naboro Prison.

Photo: Talei Roko

Freshly harvested homegrown dalo by inmates, now available for $25.

Photo: Talei Roko

The SBUs include a joinery at the medium centre, a bakery at the maximum centre, a pottery unit, a piggery, and a 2,000-acre farm where inmates grow root crops and vegetables, some of which are sold at a stall near the facility's main gate.

FCS officer Josese Veibataki said the work goes beyond earning money.

"We are rehabilitation oriented. We are doing something for them so when they go back, they can stand on their own two feet and look after themselves, look after their family," he said.

Of the 467 inmates, 61 are held at the maximum security centre, 115 at medium, 212 at minimum, and 79 at the pre-release centre.

Feedback: kaneta.naimatau@fijisun.com.fj