Monrovia – Col. Abraham Kromah, the Deputy Director of Police for Operations, has recommended that the government of Liberia build more prisons around the country to avoid over crowdedness.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway – [email protected]
The deputy Police chief made the assertions Tuesday while speaking at a program marking the commemoration of Africa Pre-trial Detention Day and the official launch the Independent National Commission on Human Right (INCHR) 2016 thematic report on the conditions of prisons and prisoners in Liberia.
Col. Kromah said prison facilities in Monrovia are incapable of hosting all of those awaiting trial. He explained that pretrial detention is responsible for making prisons overcrowded.
Col. Kromah noted that if more prison facilities are built around the country, it will help ease the tension of over crowdedness of prisons in Monrovia and its environs.
“What I will suggest and I want to be clear on is we need to build prisons. We need to build more prisons to accommodate what we have in Monrovia. Our probation department needs to be strengthening and we also have to develop our paroled system, and the elevation of our community correction system needs to enhance as well,” he said.
Liberia joined other African nations Tuesday to celebrate the day, as the INCHR 2016 thematic report on the conditions of prisons and prisoners provides appalling conditions of prisons in Liberia.
A year ago, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights officially launched a new bid to improve the working of the criminal justice systems across Africa.
The new standards, known as the Luanda Guidelines adopted deals with the conditions of arrest, Police custody, and pretrial detention in Africa.
They were adopted by the commission out of the concern for the impact of prison overcrowding and the consequences of arbitrary arrest and prolonged pretrial detention in Africa.
As part of the commission’s effort to highlight this issue, April 25 has now been declared Africa Pretrial Detention Day.
Rev. Bartholomew B. Colley, Acting Chairperson of the INCHR, at the program said the Luanda guidelines focus on the actions of criminal justice personnel from the moment of arrest until trial, covering issues such as arrest and custody, safeguards for arrestees and defendants, measures to ensure that law enforcement transparency and accountability, as well as ways to improve coordination between criminal justice institutions.
“As we celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of the guidelines today in Liberia, it is fitting to take stock of the pre-trial detention situation in Africa, recognizing that Africa is a diverse region comprised of 54 states with pre-trial justice practices that vary significantly across the continent,” he said.
Despite substantial population growth over the past half century, and increase in crime fuelled by urbanization and modernization, the capacity of African prison systems has hardly changed.
As a result, many of the continent’s prison systems are in a state of crisis, burdened with overcrowding and inability or unwillingness to protect the human rights of prisoners—a constituency which is marginalized and widely despised by politicians and the public alike.
Pre-trial detention in accordance with relevant legislation, the Liberian Government must take all necessary steps to prevent excessive pre-trial detention; that is, any detention which surpasses the six-month time limit. This however requires much more coordinated work of the side of all justice actors.
Over crowdedness remains a challenge for the correction system in Liberia as many of the prisons around the country are overcrowded with people over staying without first appearance in court.
Judge Ceaineh D. Clinton Johnson, Presiding Judge of Criminal Court E, blame the over crowdedness of prisons to the lack of people not following up their cases.
“I will like to say one of the reasons for the over crowdedness of the prisons is the absence of the 12.1 rights and the absence of other means of not being in prison is that we have a public defense system is being instituted and I noticed that they are not present here today.
She noted that most people who are lingering behind bars are poor people who cannot pay legal fees, “I agreed with the person who say most of the people who are in jail today for manner crime are poor people because they cannot afford the legal representation.”
Criminal Court E is responsible for the handling of sexual offensive at the temple of Justice.
Speaking about the over crowdedness of cell due to rape cases, Judge Johnson said people are behind bars because most of the complainants mainly the victims are not following their cases.
“The reason why we have such huge pre-trial detention at the rape court is that we in Liberia have the attitude that once somebody goes to jail the case is over, so the prosecutors will constantly inform the court that they cannot find victim so the case cannot continue, and when we release the defendant to the public there are public outcry against the judiciary.”