Transcript
The main jail in PNG's Highlands region is struggling to contain prisoners.
Eight people were shot dead as over 100 inmates escaped from Baisu prison near Mt Hagen last week.
The vast majority of those who escaped are remandees, some of whom have waited years for their cases to be heard.
Western Highlands Police Commander Jacob Kamiak says frustration builds up among inmates because the justice system is so inefficient in committing their cases to trial.
"They should go to trial as quickly as possible. But sometimes you know they (prosecution) delay their cases, and at times they (remandees) wind up in custody until going through trials when they (prosecution) find that there's enough evidence to have them convicted. They don't make decisions quickly. That's the problem that led to the escape."
He adds that security at Baisu Jail is also inadequate.
"Security is not really that strong. So there's barbed wire and razor wire and all these things around the perimeters of the cell block only. But the prison camp itself is open."
The Western Highlands prison is under strain because it holds inmates from other provinces which lack corrections facilities, particularly Enga province, a tribal fighting hotspot.
Enga's provincial police commander, Epenes Nili has launched a campaign to crack down on people holding illegal weapons, but he admits that the arrests his force make must be absorbed by authorities in another province.
"Sorry, unfortunately we don;t have a correctional service in the province because the one that they're trying to build is still in development stage at this time."
So where do people who police in Enga take into custody end up? Baisu Prison in neighbouring Western Highlands.
Commander Nili was aware of the mass breakout from Baisu last week, and admitted some of the escapees could have fled into his province.
"I believe so. But I also add that some were shot dead. I really want to find out how many dead, how many recaptured, and how many still on the run."
Baisu Jail commander, Chief Superintendent Timbi Kaugla says as a consequence of those coming from Enga, and to a lesser extent Jiwaka province, the Western Highlands prison is badly overcrowded.
"Instead of coming down to Baisu Jail, they're supposed to build accommodation for them to hold their prisoners up in Enga province. It is overcrowded here because of the prisoners coming from Enga. Probably in the future we might stop those prisoners coming from Enga. How they look after them, they can hold them in the police station or... whereever."
Overcrowding in prisons across PNG is exacerbating health crises among inmates and corrections staff.
Daru prison has reported that 11 staff and prisoners are being treated for typhoid fever or malaria, with warders becoming ill after having to work 12-hour shifts in the mosquito-ridden facility.
The Correctional Service department says it's assessing the situation at the jail and will provide a report.
But Daru prison says nothing has been done to fix health and safety issues in time for a mid-February deadline imposed by provincial health officials who condemned the facility last month.
Kavieng police station in New Ireland province was similarly condemned by health authorities as "unfit for human habitation", with police forced to release inmates on remand.
Meanwhile, Commander Kamiak says police recently pressed judges on the court backlog at a Mt Hagen workshop attended by a senior judge from Port Moresby.
"During that workshop we talked about the backlog of prisoners who are waiting for their decisions, the remandees. The judge from Moresby told them to speed up the decisions."
Around 70 of the inmates who escaped Baisu Jail remain at large, according to authorities.
The escape followed another mass breakout, at Morobe province's Buimo jail in January, when a prisoner trying to escape and a warder were both shot dead.
