This included four innovative rehabilitation programmes that were studied in detail. An overview of the current rehabilitation initiatives in Fiji Prisons are reviewed and recommendations are outlined. The complete report (minus appendices) Evaluating Rehabilitation Programmes in the Fiji Corrections System (2008) is available to download from here (1.2MB).
Three of the rehabilitation programmes outside of the Fiji Prisons and Corrections unit were not only evaluated but were filmed in conjunction with ZoomFiji, and edited through the New Zealand production company Masimedia. These films have been shown around the Pacific region on the television programme 'Pacific Way'. They are like visual summaries of the research findings from the research conducted by Oceanikpsi Ltd. The research programme was an AusAID funded initiative that was managed in Fiji by the Coffey based team called the 'Australia Fiji Community Justice Programme'.
Community Work Orders & Corrections in Ba
The first concerns the effectiveness in reducing recidivism in offenders around the Ba district which is on the northern shores of the main island of Viti Levu.
Restorative Education in Western Fiji
The second film concerns the effectiveness of a rehabilitation programme offered by an NGO based in Lautoka called 'FRIEND'. The programme had a two phase approach, the first was to consider how to get the inmate to understand the consequences to others in the community as a result of their criminal act; this is the 'restorative educational' approach. The second was to help formulate a way of generating income after the inmate had left the prison.
Counselling Inmates
The final film demonstrates the effectiveness of a rehabilitation programme offered by another NGO based in Lautoka called 'Pacific Counselling & Social Services'. The programme was based around the concepts of guidance and counselling to get the inmate to understand the psycho-social pressures that appear to have been instrumental in making them believe that they should lead a life of crime. This knowledge allowed the inmates to consider alternative ways to frame their social world and to cope with the apparent pressures to enter into criminal acts.