Monrovia – Dressed in Orange prison suits, dragging their feet slowly as they get in vehicles owned by the Bureau of Correction, are detainees who have spent years at the Monrovia Central Prison.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, [email protected]
8 convicts went to the court hoping to be freed by the judge. Their hopes were dashed as they were told that the judge had reassigned their matter.
The detainees have spent from 1 year to 5 years and have been indicted by state prosecutors in Montserrado County.
Annie Paye, 50, sister to one of the detainees expressed disappointment over her brother.
Paye: “ We came early this morning knowing that our brother was going to be free, but the court say da na time yea (not time yet), so we will have to sleep anywhere because we came from behind Johnsonville and we don’t even have one cent to go and come back.”
“My brother was a sweeper and cleaner at a public school, one day he was only asked by his boss man to go at the school, there he was arrested.”
“When we went to the Police station they asked us for US$100.00 but see me I’m cold water and bitter kola seller, where will I have that amount from?”
She alleged that since the money couldn’t be paid police officers took her brother to the central prison.
Madam Paye said from the time her brother was indicted by state prosecutors, she has not seeing the victim. Something she said is traumatizing to the family and the detainee’s wife and children.
Detainee Sunday Gah Vah was indicted by the grand jurors of Montserrado County in August 2016.
The indictment which is in possession of FPA shows that the defendant was a janitor in the school that the victim attends and on Tuesday May 31, 2016 the victim went to school and after class she went to urinate upon which the defendant inserted his finger into her vagina four times.
“And after he inserted his finger, he told her that she was stupid and left her.”
The indictment averred that when she (the victim) went home she didn’t tell her mother but her vagina started hurting and her mother asked her the cause.
The victim then reported to her mother that the defendant had inserted his finger in her four times.
On June 2, The victim was taken to the JDJ Memorial hospital for examination and the act was established.
At the time of the crime, the victim was nine years old while the defendant was 54 years of age.
The Independent National Commission on Human Rights in its recent report stated that the conditions in Liberia’s prisons have deteriorated on several fronts, due in large measure to the increasing prison population.
The prison population continues to grow at a steady rate.
The conditions of prisons and detention facilities remain very appalling and his condition has persisted, at least over the last six years.
The 2011-2015 report outlines that some of the appalling conditions include the worsened overcrowding of prisons, prolonged-pretrial detention and very poor facility structures.
Living conditions in the prisons are damaging to the physical and mental well-being of inmates and in many cases constitute clear threats to health.
Toilets are blocked and overflowing or simply nonexistent, and there is no running water. As a result, diseases are widespread.