By Henry Kargbo
Inmates at the Sierra Leone Correctional Service in the country are reported to be still using bucket stools as toilets in their various prison cells at the Pademba Road maximum detention facility in Freetown, disclosed Chief Superintendent Foday Ishmael Kamara.
The SLCS Chief Superintendent Foday Ishmael Kamara last Friday 20th January 2023 told journalists at an open court hearing that there are over two thousand one hundred and forty-one male inmates at the Correctional Service facility who are still using bucket system to excrete especially at night and during the day as their toilets. Kamara made the disclosure before hon Justice Ivan Ansumna Sesay of the High Court of Sierra Leone at the close of hearing of the Court’s Criminal Secession. He said that there the Correctional Service have only three hundred and twenty -four (324) cells to house over two thousand inmates.
SLCS Chief Superintendent Foday Ishmael Kamara informed that at the Female Correctional facility, they have one hundred and eighteen (118) inmates and eighteen (18) cells, adding that at the reintegration facility they have one hundred and eighty-five (185) inmates and that they have one hundred and twenty (120) cells.
He furthered that inmates have 24hour electricity supply except when there is black out, then they will always switch on the standby generator, adding that in terms of food they give them breakfast in the morning and double ransoms which is 32 ounces for lunch and dinner, pointing that in the area of food system they have contractor that supply them with fish and meat by cartoons and that inmates prepare their foods.
Kamara said that they are faced with lots of challenges in the area of medical facilities and healthcare delivery to inmates, adding that they have one medical doctor for the over 2,141 inmates and they have sixty (60) Register Nurses with thirteen beds.
He said they have specialist if they have special cases, they will refer them to big hospitals like Kamaraimba who is suffering from prostate cancer.
He told the Court that they hardly conduct medical check-ups on the inmates except when they are sick.
He said they have foreign national in custody such as Nigerians and they are Christians and Muslims, adding that they have been managing the Correctional Service for so long and therefore recommended to government through the line Ministry of Internal Affairs that they need a modern correctional facility.
While cross examining by defence Counsel, Cecilia Tucker said there were recommendations by the last closing Criminal Session by Hon Justice Halloway for the elimination of the bucket toilet systems and the congestion of the prison. She said late last year they visited Songo to identify the land and they have paid the land owners. She continues that in December, it was decided that they will relocate the Correctional Centre to Masankay and the land has also been survey. The defence Counsel from the Sierra Leone Legal Aid Board made an application for a Court Order that the orders given by the Court should be dealt with.
