MONROVIA – Prisoners in Tubmanburg Central Prison in Bomi County are facing acute food shortage and may likely have nothing to feed on if the government or other well-meaning citizens and philanthropists do not go to their aid.
By Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
The dire situation at the prison facility has forced the prison superintendent Jerome Doe to write prominent members of Bomi County to assist with food and cash to prevent the inmates from starving, especially during this festive season.
“In this festive season, we are undergoing an acute shortage of Prison Subsistence Fund (PSF) to cater to the soup and other needs of the inmates and facility. In fact, we haven’t received fund from our Headquarters to feed the inmates for almost Five (5) months, and the rice supply in stock is running out. Our facility is currently running on credit which increases on a daily basis,” Mr. Doe stated in a communication to a prominent member of the County.
The communication continues, “In this light Sir/Madam, we earnestly solicit your assistance in cash or kind to facilitate our handling of the constraints earlier mentioned. We would appreciate were you to contact us through the cell numbers below to present whatever is available; we shall also be making follow-ups in the same endeavor.”
When contacted for further clarity on the situation at the prison, Superintendent Doe declined to comment.
However, over the past few months, there have been reports of food shortage from several prison facilities across the country including the Monrovia Central Prison, the Ganta Central Prison and the Gbarnga Central Prison.
In November, authorities at the Monrovia Central Prison expressed concerns that there could be a mass jailbreak due to hunger as the facility was faced with food shortage.
FrontPageAfrica had gathered from sources within the facility that during the afternoon hours of Monday, November 20, prison authorities were constrained to starve inmates from many blocks due to the shortage of ration.
Meal was only provided to the female, juvenile and sickbay at the prison compound leaving out hundreds of others to go to bed on empty stomach, FrontPageAfrica gathered.
The prison facility in Gbarnga, Bong County experienced similar shortage in August when the facility which was designed to hold 130 inmates was hosting 230, instead.
“The food we eat is not fit for dogs,” said an inmate who requested not to be identified,” an inmate told FrontPageAfrica at the time.
“They give us watery a day and is not regular. Many of us try to find other ways of feeding ourselves because the food is just tasteless. We’re dying slowly from hunger.
“We have nothing to wash our toilet. All we use is ash to try and reduce the smell. I have not spent two weeks here without having one infection or the other,” he added.
“We do various labor in this prison to make ends meet. But you cannot survive here, unless you have someone from outside who attends to you every week.”
The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules state that prisoners should receive food that is nutritious and well prepared. The rules also state that prisoners should have access to drinking water whenever they need it
The Nelson Mandela Rules state that the state is responsible for providing health care to prisoners. The rules also state that the relationship between health-care professionals and prisoners should be governed by the same ethical and professional standards as those applicable to patients in the community