THE CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF SOLOMON ISLANDS' RESPONSE TO
ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDRENFrancis Kiri *I. BACKGROUND TO THE CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDSThe Solomon Islands is a developing South Pacific country consisting of 992 islands with a population of700,000. The country's Correctional Service of Solomon Islands (CSSI), previously known as the Solomon
Islands Prison Service, was established in 1892. The first prison in Solomon Islands was built in 1894 atTulagi by Mr. Woodford who arrived in Solomon Islands as the first representative of the then BritishEmpire from Fiji. Today Tulagi has no correctional facility, and CSSI is Headquartered in Honiara on theneighbouring Island of Guadalcanal.
In 2007, Solomon Islands Prison Service formally became what is still known today as the CSSI, throughParliament’s enactment of the Correctional Service of Solomon Islands (CSSI) Acts 2007 and CSSI Regulations
2008. In 2009, as part of the agreed transition and capacity-building activities that had occurred under theRAMSI1 development programme and a de-escalation of ethnic tensions in the community, the Solomon
Islands Government decided to localize the position of the Commissioner of Prisons. With the first
Commissioner Francis Haisoma appointed in 2010, he was followed by the appointment of the current
Commissioner Gabriel Manelusi in 2019.

II. REGIONAL ASSISTANCE MISSION TO SOLOMON ISLANDS (RAMSI) AND VAWCThe Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) began operating in Solomon Islands in 2003
until its withdrawal in 2017. It was a partnership between the people and government of Solomon Islandsand fifteen contributing countries of the Pacific region. Its mission was to bring peace and monitor the peaceafter the ethnic conflict in Solomon Islands. RAMSI is important in that it has played a large role in putting
gender and the issue of violence against women and children as a priority of Solomon Islands Government
and provided the specialist advisors to develop the Solomon Islands Family Protection Bill introduced in 2016.
RAMSI also in its time supported the introduction of men’s behavioural change programmes within theCorrectional Services centres.

III. CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SOLOMON ISLANDSThe Solomon Islands has one of the highest rates of family and sexual violence (FSV) in the world with
64% of women aged 15–49 having reported physical and/or sexual abuse by a partner. Gender inequality
remains a major issue in the Solomon Islands as documented in the World Health Organization report in
2011. Furthermore, the country has one of the highest rates of family and sexual violence (FSV) in the world,with 64% of women aged 15–49 reporting physical or sexual abuse.2 A 2009 study revealing high rates of
FSV in the Solomon Islands concluded that a multi-factorial approach to tackling attitudes toward genderbased violence was necessary, involving politics, public health, communities, and healthcare policies.3
Nevertheless, in 2011, the World Health Organization reported that 73% of men and women still believed
gender-based violence was acceptable.
＊Inspector, Inspectorate, Correctional Services of Solomon Islands.
RAMSI – Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands https://www.ramsi.org
2
WHO – Gender Based Violence in the Solomon Islands: Translating Research Into Action on the Social Determinantsof Health. 2011. [Last accessed on 2015 Dec 01]. Available from: http://www.who.int/sdhconference/resources/draft_background_paper4_solomon_islands.pdf .
3Solomon Islands Family Health Safety Study. 2009. [Last accessed on 2015 Dec 01]. Available at: http://www.spc.int/hdp/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=39&dir=ASC&order=name&Itemid=44&limit=5&limitstart=5170

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IV. RAMSI SPONSORED SOLOMON ISLANDS GOVERNMENT FAMILY
PROTECTION ACTIn 2016, Solomon Islands launched its first ever Family Protection Act. For the first time, domestic
violence is explicitly outlawed. Previously, the only option for women who experienced physical or sexual
violence was to charge their partners with assault. Even then, police were hesitant to get involved with what
is viewed as a private family matter. If the violence was not physical, it was impossible to prosecute.
Before the Act was passed, psychological and economic abuse were not even acknowledged, despite being
invisible but dangerous ways women are controlled and trapped in abusive relationships. With no formal
legislation in place defining and criminalizing domestic violence, women’s rights to justice were not taken
seriously. The Act finally changes this, making physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse illegal. Itgives women and girls an opportunity to seek protection from the state. It also finally sends a clear message
that violence against women will not be tolerated. A new law in Solomon Islands will introduce harsher
penalties for sexual offences, particularly those committed against children. The amendment to the penal
code updates penalties and the definitions of a range of serious offences. The new laws also introduce a rangeof new sexual offences, including sexual intercourse with a person with a disability, sexual intercourse by aperson in a position of trust, commercial child sexual exploitation, child exploitation material and internalpeople.

V. THE CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF SOLOMON ISLANDS' TREATMENT OFVAWC OFFENDERS
Regarding identifying offenders’ risks and needs, in 2007 the Solomon Island Prison Service began workon its Rehabilitation Framework to provide a foundation and guide for implementing rehabilitation at its 6
correctional facilities. At the centre of this framework was the development of a risk/needs assessment toolthat could be predictive of recidivism for prisoners and guide the service in providing programmes thatcould mitigate and reduce the risk of recidivism to support this offender-needs analysis. From the data
Gathered in the RNI it was apparent that CSSI was seeing a large increase in the number of prisoners
sentenced for crimes of a sexual nature: rape, defilement, indecent assault, and incest were on the increase.
The perpetrators ranged across the whole community from village elders to young juveniles; many of theseoffenders were illiterate.
As a response, CSSI, through its programmes and industry team, began working to develop treatment
programmes for offenders focused on VAWC and were able in 2012 to introduce their first programmes that
directly addressed these behaviours. It must be noted that the concept and practice of assisting sexual
offenders was new to most CSSI Officers, and conversations included male identity in Solomon Islands
culture, the rights of women and children, and the silence surrounding sexual offences. Making the conceptsof the sex offending programme culturally relevant are all new concepts; another challenge is the taboonature of sex in Solomon Islands traditional culture.

VI. FAITH-BASED BASIC SEX OFFENDER PROGRAMMEThe first of these has been a faith-based basic sex offender programme developed in consultation withchurch leaders with its foundation built on Christian faith and Solomon Islands culture. The course isstructured around the principals of narrative therapy:
Narrative therapy, or storying as it is called in Solomon Pidgin, is as an empowering and collaborative
form of therapy, recognizing that people have natural skills and experiences that can guide change in theirlives. People are seen separately from their problems, and simple therapy can help externalize sensitive
issues. When done in a structured manner, it can overcome their resistance and defences and allows themto address their behaviour in a more productive manner.
Narrative therapy also helps prisoners to view their past behaviour within the context of social, political,
and cultural storylines that influence the way we view ourselves and our personal stories. This storying
ultimately makes a sex offender confront his crime; for many they believe forgetting will help them cope.
However, for the prisoner to change this confrontation is an important step. The Cognitive Behavioural71

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Therapy component of the programme is based on the idea that sex offenders have had many cognitive
distortions (e.g. “thinking errors”) that “give permission” to the offender to commit sexual offences. For theCBT to be effective, the prisoner develops for themselves the ability to recognize and overcome cognitive
distortions. Since beginning the programme in 2012, more than 200 prisoners have completed it.

VII. THE THINKING-FEELING-DOING PROGRAM (TFD)
The TFD Project was also introduced with support from RAMSI in 2012 and conducted at the RoveCentral Correction Centre. Prisoners undergo 12 x 2 hour sessions on theories behind their sexual offending
and are then provided with course materials and exercises to aim at addressing their risks and needs tosupport the changing of their behaviours and end reoffending.
The learning is supposed to be interactive with moments of in-depth disclosure and a healthy humour.
The TFD Project format is based around the building of a quality internal home with a strong foundation, skilful
construction and assisting clients to share the keys to their lives. The primary aim of the training is to assista client to relate well to others and think about building a ‘good life’.
After successfully introducing the TFD programme in 2012, it has been also delivered in four of CSSI’s
smaller centres away from Honiara; to date more than 400 prisoners have completed the TFD programme,
and many have completed the programme as well as the Faith-Based Sexual Offending programme.
Thinking-Feeling-Doing Program – The chart below shows the number of prisoners completing theprogramme by year and centre. It also shows the difficulty in delivering and sustaining delivery in Provincial
Centres, after training local providers to deliver the programme; they then stop.4

Rove Honiara
AukiMakira
LataGizo

2012
24201338201446

2015
48

911201662142017
6312

2018
58

8

8VIII. CSSI AND UN WOMENIn 2013, CSSI began working in partnership with the United Nations Women Pacific Facility Fund (UNWomen PFF) in Honiara. The project funded by UN Women was to deliver an ending violence against
women programme to all sentenced prisoners within the Correction Centres in the Solomon Islands. UNWomen recognized the attempts that CSSI had made to make prisoner rehabilitation its priority, and it isseeking new ways to deliver programmes that would change the behaviour of prisoners, most of whom areserving sentences for violence-related offences.5 Under the programme, more than 400 prisoners in all the six
correctional facilities at Rove, Honiara, Tetere, Guadalcanal, Auki, Malaita, Kira Kira, Makira, Gizo, Western
Province, and Lata in Santa Cruz were targeted.
In addition to primarily targeting prisoners, the awareness programme on Domestic Violence was alsodelivered to the more than 350 Correctional Service staff and families. The programme used for this wasthe Naf Nao programme from the NGO Live and Learn. One prisoner in Auki Correction Centre spoke on
the closing encouraging the recipients of Male Advocators against Violence against Women and Girls, “Youhave completed this five days' training workshop, and I believe that you have acquired a brand new way ofthinking; let’s take that with us when we leave here, back to our communities so we can be better fathersand men”, CSSI UN Women Project Coordinator Staff Sergeant Glins K Clay in speaking said that the CSSI
4Thinking-Feeling-Doing Program Manual – Island Printing Honiara 2012
United Nations General Assembly. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly 61/143. Intensification of efforts toeliminate all forms of violence against women. 30 January 2007. Retrieved from http://www.uneca.org/daweca/conventions_
and_resolutions/Res.%20intensification%20of%20efforts.pdf.

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Programs & Industry Unit and UN Women, CSSI and UN Women team in Honiara is working very closely
through programmes such as this to move prisoners and communities towards zero tolerance to violenceagainst women and children.

IX. CONCLUSION
As a correctional service coming late to modern correctional practices, CSSI has come a long way since
first developing its prisoner Rehabilitation Framework and the first Risk Need Responsivity/Assessment
tool－all only in 2008. A lot of its progress has been made possible through the assistance of RAMSI, especiallyin the area of Gender and Ending Violence against Women. The Correctional Service, having started fromvery few programmes of any type and no programmes that addressed prisoners, offending behaviour against
women and children in 2008 has come a long way up to now. It is an achievement that it now has threeprogrammes aimed at behavioural change. These home-grown treatment programmes, although considered
low level in their intensity, are seen as a beginning, and as the Correctional Service develops along with thecountry and more resources are made available, then the CSSI response to treating prisoners can beintensified.
The Challenge for CSSI in going forward is to continue to develop its staff in rehabilitation practices,
particularly in the area of EVAW programmes. Such development in Solomon Islands is very challenging as
the CSSI does not have access to the needed educational programmes and expertise that are required; thismakes opportunities such as those offered by organizations like the United Nations Asia and Far East
Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI) essential for the continued
development of the organization.

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