By Henry Kargbo
A recently acquitted and discharged inmate from the Male Correctional Centre on Pademba Road, named withheld, has last week narrated the horrible ordeals he experienced in the hands of co-inmates and prison guards during his detention at the deplorable facility.
Speaking to journalists at the Law Court Building son Siaka Stevens Street, shortly after his release from prison, the former inmate said revealed that life in prison was not easy them, especially how they get regular food supplies though they were entitled to three males per day.
“Food served at the Pademba prison by the authorities are unhealthy, unsafe and are not good for human consumption. Some inmates have the habits of brutally assaulting and homosexually abusing others on daily basis in full view of prison/correctional officers, result to unwarranted sicknesses and eventual deaths of inmates” he said.
When asked what was the crime committed that sent him to prison, the former inmate replied: “I was convicted for robbery and I spent four years at the Male Correctional Centre”. He observed that the Pademba prison is still not a correctional facility.
The former inmate alleged that prison officer usually trafficked drugs such as diazepam among other hard substances into the prison yard and lace inmates’ food to make them sleep, which render most inmates hopeless to a point of sleeping for the rest of the day.
Asked whether inmates normally take their baths before making their court appearances, he said: It is hardly possible for inmates to take bath before going to court because there is no water at the correction centre.
As for electricity, he said cells at the Pademba prison cells are like hell, which make life very miserable for inmates. “Electricity sometime is very challenging and as prison inmates, most of us just consider ourselves dead, or if one is lucky of the crime committed maybe his/she will be set free,” he narrated, reiterating that the Pademba Road prison is not a correctional centre as inmates suffer a lot.
Describing his former cell which housed about seven to eight inmates, the ex-inmate said they always battle for a small space to sleep.
