MONROVIA – Mass jail break is imminent at the Monrovia Central Prison due to the shortage of food for the over 1,400 inmates detained and serving their various sentences at the prison facility.

By Obediah Johnson

The MCP is the largest prison facility in Liberia.

FrontPage Africa has 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 with meal 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.

The feeding of inmates or convicts once a day runs contrary to best international practice, which calls for prisoners to be fed at least three times a day to help prevent jail break and insecurity.

Inmates in the remaining nine blocks including F-A, F-B, F-C, F-D, F-E, Block E, Block D, Block N-B and Block M-C were reportedly unfed due to the shortage of food.

Our sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that only two bags of rice are left in the warehouse of the prison facility.

For years now, the Monrovia Central Prison (MCP) has been hit with food shortage.

Most often, prison authorities are compelled to place phone calls to humanitarians and other philanthropic organizations to provide feeding for the inmates due to inadequate support from the government.

For weeks now, their efforts applied to reach out to these individuals and groups, have not yielded any fruitful results, something which prompted the growing wave of hunger among the inmates.

Parents, loved ones, relatives and friends are also constrained to take food and other items to inmates and convicts on a daily basis due to the current situation.

“Currently the Monrovia Central Prison (MCP) is totally out of food again.. Even though this is a regular pattern whereby Government have had less attention towards the prison, the MCP Administration is most often successful in going out to beg few humanitarians to help and such endeavor always yield fruit but today’s experience seems to be worse because some Kitchen Staffs are escaping already,” a source reported.

The source added: “It’s safe to say that the team that went out to beg for rice is nowhere near success so kitchen staffs are getting a bit afraid.”

Damaged cooking pots

Female kitchen staffs at the prison compound have also expressed concerns that authorities have failed to purchase new cooking pots to secure the food of the inmates.

They have complained on numerous occasions that the two cooking pots which have been repaired countless number of times have outlived its usefulness.

They emphasized that those pots are no longer usable and as such, they cannot continue to manage them for cooking purposes, an action that should claim the attention of the government.

No action

Despite their pleas for the purchasing of new cooking pots, authorities at the prison have failed to address the situation.

“The female kitchen staffs have patched those pots over and over to the extent it cannot be fixed anymore. So, the staffs had to go through straining by managing with two old cooking pots which led to inmates receiving their one time daily dry rice during late evening hours.,” the source maintained.

Though the current situation and hardship confronting inmates have been reported to authorities at the Ministry of Justice, nothing has been done to guarantee the wellbeing of inmates and convicts at the facility.

The threat

The latest situation may escalate to a mass prison break if steps are not taken with urgency.

It also threatens the lives of other peaceful inmates, workers, guards and visitors at the facility.

Inmates experiencing hunger could go on the rampage by strategizing and initiating plans to escape from prison.

Since the inception of the Weah led-government, the Monrovia Central Prison has been rocked with multiple constraints ranging from the regular food shortage to the lack of safe drinking water, over crowdedness, and the outbreak of strange and communicable diseases among the inmates.

Last year, a strange disease broke out at the facility claiming the lives of few inmates.

When contacted via telephone, Assistant Justice Minister Eddie Trawali reluctantly claimed that the allegations raised were not to his knowledge.

He, however, encouraged FrontPageAfrica to contact the incoming government to respond further to the allegations.

MONROVIA – The Condo Reconciliation Group, a US-based peace advocacy group with an office in Monrovia, Liberia on Saturday, September 3, 2022, visited the Monrovia Central Prison(MCP) also known as South Beach.

The MCP, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,400 people are crammed into a space that was initially built for less than 400.

Accordingly, the visit of the MCP is an initiative being embarked upon by Condo to track the detention status of inmates at the various prisons across the country ranging from pretrial, conviction and sentence.

During the visit, a 3-member delegation of Condo led by Rev. Dr. George W. Zorbah, Administrator of the organization, interviewed several of the inmates regarding their detention status at South Beach.

The Condo team observed that most of the inmates are pretrial detainees and do not have lawyers to represent them in court, thereby denying them a speedy trial. 

Some of the crimes committed by the inmates, who strongly lamented their long detention without trial, include murder, rape, theft of property and aggravated assault.

Besides the long detention without trial, it was also observed that the conditions of the prison remain unfavorable-this situation has long existed in the country’s jails.

The unfavorable conditions include overcrowding and poor infrastructure- the lack of well-maintained facilities.

The lack of proper food for inmates is one of the many challenges being faced by authorities at the MCP.

The unfavorable conditions at the MCP have been mainly attributed to a shortfall on delays in the government releasing funds that should be supplied monthly.

Meanwhile, at the end of the visit, Administrator Zorbah said Condo would do a comprehensive report on its assessment of the conditions of the inmates at the MCP and the prison itself and advance concrete suggestions to the national government, local and international partners aimed at addressing the old age problems in the country.

Monrovia – Surprising inmates at the Monrovia Central Prison, Montserrado County Senator George Weah on Tuesday paid an Independence Day visit to prisoners at the South Beach.

Report by Henry Karmo – henrykarmo@frontpageafricaonline.com

The purpose of the visit, according to Senator Weah, was to see the living conditions of the prisoners and find ways to help.

He told correction officers during his visit that he will observe what is needed most and make interventions as senator of Montserrado County by providing some of the basic needs of inmates, including soaps, beds, toothpaste amongst others.

Meeting with some of the prisoners, he cautioned them to remain calm and follow the due process of law.  As part of his visit, he also met with representatives of the 19 Grand Gedians who are currently behind bars at the Monrovia Central Prison.  

During his meeting with the Grand Gedeains, he said in his former position as Peace Ambassador, the case of the 19 Grand Gedeains was brought before him. He called on them to remain calm and follow the court process.

“I came to say happy Independence Day,” he said.

“God see you all, even as you are in Prison. I have come to encourage you that the law is due process and we will keep advocating for your release if you are proven innocent.”

Senator promised to meet with President Ellen Jonson Sirleaf. He said he has been in talks with the Executive to make sure they are given due process, promising to pay a visit to Ivorian leader Alassane Ouattara to hold discussions with him on   issues surrounding the imprisonment of the Grand Gedians.

Weah meets female inmates

Senator Weah also met with female inmates and juvenile delinquents at the prison and encouraged them to remain discipline. “We are all Liberians—you are value as we are. Keep your discipline, you will be out one day, keep the courage”, he said.

“I came to see and I am glad I was given the opportunity to see how the prison is.”

“We will keep following up the process, best we can do is to help you prove your innocence. Be strong and hopeful, if you did not commit the crimes you are here for, it doesn’t matter how long,” he said.