Doing time in ‘Hell’: Life in Sierra Leone’s rundown jails
FREETOWN, S ierra L eone: A shaft of light penetrates the foul air through a fist-sized vent.
It r eveals n aked, s weating bodies pa cked s ide-by- side l ike sardines, lying in darkness on a greasy concrete floor.
The stench of urine and excreta from a b rimming plastic bucket -- just one f or a c ell c ontaining perhaps 20 people -- claws at the throat.
This w as t he sc ene a t t he B o Correctional Facility in southern Sierra Leone.
It was one of eight prisons that this reporter visited last week to assess the state of penitentiaries that independent voices say are a national scandal.
The tableau that emerged was tropical D ickens - - c rammed, poorly-lit c ells, w hose i nmates said th ey w ere s uffering w ith disease, rotten food, cockroaches and super- sized b edbugs, and a climate of jungle-like violence.
“I was caught with two parcels of marijuana. I have spent three years on remand -- it’s like living in Hell,” one inmate said.
“Lack of sp ace i s s o bad t hat people have to take turns” to lie down, said another, who like many o ther i nmates as ked n ot to be na med, e xplaining t hey feared reprisals by guards.
“Blankets an d m ats ar e a luxury in our cell. Even some of the food we eat has an of fensive smell,” added another prisoner.
A c onvict w ith c rutches i n a jail at Kenema, the West African country’s th ird l argest c ity, said “vi olence a mong i nmates for f ood, w ater a nd spa ce i s common.”
“This is a jungle -- it’s survival of the fittest,” he declared.
In 2 016, S ierra Le one’s Human Righ ts Co mmission denounced the squalor and lack of re habilitative o r educational programmes in th e c ountry’s prisons as “inhumane.”
Walter-Neba Ch enwi, a specialist i n t he r ule of l aw a t the UN Development Programme ( UNDP), which h as a pr oject t o improve S ierra Le one’s j ails, said t he co nditions “fall f ar below international standards of human rights.”
“We t reat people in d etention as i f t hey don ’t ex ist,” s aid Ahmed Jalloh, a n a ctivist wi th a lo cal wa tchdog g roup, P rison Watch.
“Out o f 4 ,525 i nmates a cross Sierra L eone j ails, we h ave an e xcess o f2 ,659 peo ple in d etention, for ced i nto overcrowded c ell bl ocks,” t he director o f human res ources a t the S ierra L eone C orrectional Services, Dennis Herman, said.
Kenema prison, a stone-walled jail built in 1826 during British colonial rul e, h as a r egulation capacity of 75 i nmates, b ut accommodates a round 3 00, prison di rector L amin Sesa y said.
At Bo pe nitentiary, i ntended for 80 prisoners but housing 300, guard Moh amed O pinto J immy said be tween 1 5 a nd 2 0 peo ple were be ing p acked i nto ce lls that, a ccording t o r egulations, should have a maximum of four.
Prison w orkers a lso p oint to disease w hich is ri fe a nd poo r access to healthcare.
In B o, t here i s a s ingle healthcare w orker f or 3 00 inmates, ma ny o f w hom s uffer from c hronic i llnesses su ch a s TB, AIDS and malaria.
“Some inm ates ar e t oo w eak from a naemia t o wa lk a round the c ell b locks - - th ey w edge themselves in to l ittle c orners for f ood, w ater a nd spa ce,” t he healthcare worker said.
The s kin dis ease s cabies is commonplace, but inmates often can o nly s hower o nce a w eek because water is rationed.
Prisoners a t B o ar e t asked with trekking kilometres (miles) to polluted streams or hand- dug wells t o fi ll j erricans an d h aul them back to the jail.
“Given t he r isk of e scape, w e usually ass ign ma ny g uards t o escort i nmates,” sai d a p rison guard, Jimmy. “But inmates are usually s tigmatised b y l ocals seeing d etainees w alking th e streets in prison outfits.”
Still within this grim picture, chinks o f l ight ar e s tarting t o emerge.
Sierra L eone’s D epartment of J ustice h as j ust c ompleted a “From P rison to C orrections” programme, supported by UNDP and t he U nited S tates, to t rain 30 prisoner officers and promote higher welfare standards.
And UN DP i sd oing construction and rehabilitation work, m ainly in w ater an d sanitation, in e ight o ut o f th e country’s 19 jails.
But a ppeals c ourt J udge Nicholas B rowne-Marke t old AFP t hat help wa s a lso b adly needed for Sierra Leone’s underfunded, ch ronically- clogged judicial system.
More t han 8 5 pe r ce nt o f prisoners a re ag ed be tween 1 5 and 35.
Many o f th e y oung inm ates are being held for petty crimes, and spend long periods in prison on remand or during their trial, and t his c auses co ngestion i n jails, he said.
“The majority o f t he i nmates are in jail for loitering, snatching a p hone, d rugs o r q uarrels,” Browne-Marke told AFP.
“We a re t rying t o d econgest the facilities by expediting trials. A mobile application for pending cases has bee n d eveloped f or all j udges a nd mag istrates to encourage a s peedy t rial a nd case conclusion.” — AFP
Given the risk of escape, we usually assign many guards to escort inmates. But inmates are usually stigmatised by locals seeing detainees walking the streets in prison outfits. Jimmy, prison guard