Monrovia – Cllr. Natu Oswald Tweh, Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Republic of Liberia, toured the future facility of the Monrovia Central Prison at the settlement of Cheesemanburg in Montserrado County on Sunday, June 23, 2024. This facility, when completed, will host prisoners, especially convicts of the Monrovia Central Prison. Attorney General Tweh is said to be the first Minister of Justice to visit the site in over ten years since the land was provided by citizens of the area.
Once completed and dedicated, the famous South Beach will be relocated and perhaps used as a temporary holding center for pre-trial detainees, while the new facility at Cheesemanburg will be spacious enough to accommodate additional prisoners as part of measures to address the perennial challenge of overcrowded prisons.
At his confirmation hearing, Cllr. Tweh promised the Senate that prisoners and prisons would form a major part of his agenda, which includes the conditions of detained persons across the sixteen existing prison facilities in the country. He has commenced this agenda with the most populated prison facility.
Minister Tweh added that the purpose of his feasibility visit to the new prison facility was to explore the potential for constructing new prison compounds across the country, as the existing ones were built for a smaller number of people.
The Monrovia Central Prison was built by the Americans as a detention center during World War II for prisoners of war. Originally, the facility had three buildings which are currently in use but are very unsafe for housing inmates due to a series of cracks.
In 2005, through the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Quick Impact’s Project, an additional two buildings, including the female wing for exclusive use by females and a one-story building to improve the prison’s capacity, were constructed.
The current prison population stands at 1,522 inmates, including 68 females as of Monday, June 24, 2024, against the actual capacity of 374 inmates. The prison, located at South Beach, around the corner of Center Street and UN Drive, is currently first in terms of inmate population and second to the National Palace of Corrections in Zwedru in terms of infrastructure in Liberia.
In 2011, the Ministry of Justice, under the leadership of Cllr. Christiana P. Tah, succeeded in securing 27 acres of land in Cheesemanburg for the relocation of the Monrovia Central Prison. The relocation plan was to address issues of congestion, lack of rehabilitation halls for inmates’ skill training, limited space to house the growing number of inmates, and proper classification in line with international best practices.
In 2013, the Ministry of Justice, with support from UNOP, constructed the Administrative Building and the foundation of one-unit cell block. Due to the Ebola outbreak, the construction of the fence and the continuation of the cell blocks could not continue until funding was retrieved after the fiscal period
