Samoa’s prison to be relocated

APIA – Samoa’s notorious prison at Tafa’igata will relocate to its new location at Tanugamalala by March next year.

The plan to relocate the prison was revealed by Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi last year in when he highlighted concerns about the current location of the prison.

“ It’s too dangerous and inappropriate,” Tuilaepa said about the prison’s existence in Tafa’igata.

He said the area and surrounding villages including Nu’u, Falelauniu and Siusega were becoming increasingly populated as residents from rural villages seek freehold land to be closer to Apia.

The prime minister said this made the relocation plan all the more important because it was not appropriate to have a prison in a residential area.

The plan, he said, was to distance the main prison from Apia township so that risks associated with having such a facility near residential areas were eliminated.

He also revealed that once the new prison is built, correction officers would no longer be allowed to stay on site.

They would have to travel there on a daily basis to avoid problems such as the ones recently identified by the Commission of Inquiry into the Tafa’igata Prison.

“The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Samoa Land Corporation are handling all the land issues,” the assistant commissioner of Prisons and Corrections Services, Ulugia Niuia Aumua, said. “We have identified the area where the prison will be located.

“We are looking at about 100 acres to be fenced off, 50 acres is where the prison building will be and another 50 acres will be used by prisoners for plantations.”

“The government is pushing us to have this built by the end of this year and that’s how urgent it is for us to move.”

Ulugia confirmed that China has already thrown its support behind the project, with an offer to fence the entire area.

Although China has offered to build the security fence, Ulugia said the Tenders Board will deal with the construction of the actual prison facility.

A key part of the prison plan is for the facility to accommodate the growing number of prisoners.

Although the plan was initially for 700 prisoners, Ulugia indicated that this was unrealistic because the number of prisoners has already exceeded 600 and multiplying quite quickly.

Ulugia said the prison is overcrowded and this has resulted in a number of health issues.