Samoa’s Parole Issue
In an article published yesterday, we reported that weekend parole for Samoa’s prison inmates is to be scrapped. That plan has brought forth resistance, as reported by Radio New Zealand.
The Samoa Victim Support Group says scrapping the weekend parole of prisoners due to the bad behaviour of a minority seems unfair. The acting Police Commissioner, Papalii Li’o, says a committee of several senior police officers will review the conditions inmates must follow under the week-end policy before making a decision on whether to continue with the parole programme or scrap it altogether.
The decision from the Ministry of Police and Prisons came after a call from a government MP to scrap it, after an elderly man was beaten by a weekend parole prisoner. A spokesperson Masoe Iosefa Tautua says that the matter must be carefully considered by the committee. “We dont want to victimise other people who are willing to become better citizens. They would be victimized by the action of just one or two out of maybe 30 to 40 others coming out during the weekend.”