There have been countless reports, both internationally and locally, of the very inhumane conditions of several prison facilities across Liberia. These conditions range from over crowdedness and lack of sanitary supplies to filthy and unsafe ventilations, etc.
Tee Wonokay
In this moment, there are at least sixteen major prison facilities in the country including one detention center, these facilities are currently holding about three thousand inmates.
And clearly, Liberia’s prison population continues to grow exponentially every few months with little or no improvement in the quality and size of its prison centers.
When Liberia’s Bureau of Corrections and Rehabilitations, which manages Liberia’s prison facilities was established in 1978, its specific mandate amongst others included the duty to provide safe and humane containment facilities for inmates while at the same time providing a conducive working environment for staff.
It must be acknowledged, that despite the fact that some of the individuals being contained in the Liberian prison system have committed some horrible crimes,the punishment they face should be the fact of their containment, not exposures to such inhumane conditions as the ones being experienced at Liberia’s prison centers.
Eventhough the nation’s revised penal law provides criminal penalties for the excessive use of force by law enforcement officers, and it has provisions for the permissible use of force when necessary, nonetheless, police and other state security officers are constantly in the local news for harassment, intimidation, and disproportionate use of force against ordinary people.
It is unacceptable for public institutions to use taxpayers’ dollars for the purpose of satisfying their eggresious desire to demean other members of the human family, this is a violation of the Liberian Constitution and the basic principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,and every person who cares about democracy and the advancement of international justice must no longer stay silent.
Another appalling situation about Liberia’s Bureau of Corrections and Rehabilitations is that approximately one-half of the country’s nearly three thousand inmate population are being detained at the Monrovia Central Prison (MCP), which was originally built to hold about 374 inmates.
A recent report by Prison Fellowship Liberia (PFL) shows that overcrowding in Block ‘D’ of the Monrovia Central Prison requires that inmates have to take shifts for sleep since there is not enough room for everyone to sleep at the same time, moreover, 74 percent of the system’s inmate population are pre-trial detainees,and therefore should not be intermingled with convicted criminals.
Few weeks ago, the Bureau of Corrections and Rehabilitations reported the deaths of 17 inmates, the the Bureau was quick to claim that most of the 17 deaths were the result of medical conditions including anemia, heart conditions, and infectious diseases, etc, but not the result of prison violence or mistreatment of prisoners. But at the Foundation for Human Rights Defense, we are skeptical of the Bureau’s claim of innocence, it is infact likely that the conditions of those deceased inmates were exacerbated by inadequate care and other poor conditions at the facility.
We must all remember that Liberia is a signatory to several international instruments that protect the rights of vulnerable populations including the elderly, disadvantaged children, and inmates, one of those international instruments is the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 45/111 on the ‘Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners’, which states that: “All prisoners shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.”
Let’s be clear, that those responsible for the management of Liberia’s prison facilities have the moral, ethical, and legal obligation to ensure the safety of the people placed in the charge, and that they ought to know that the fundamental human rights of the men and women behind bars have not seized to exist.
Tee Wonokay, Executive Director, FOHRD /[email protected]
