-Responds to prison watchdog group’s concerns
By Augustine Octavius
Liberia’s Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR) has responded to a petition by the Prison Fellowship Liberia calling for its intervention and investigation into inhumane treatment of inmates at various prisons throughout the country.
On Tuesday, the Prison Fellowship Liberia through its Executive Director petitioned the human rights commission to intervene and investigate the inhumane treatment against inmates and pre-trial detainees.
Rev Francis Kollie said pre-trial detainees make up 85 percent of the 3,000 crowded and some of whom are getting sick because bad conditions in prisons around the country.
In a letter addressed to Rev. Kollie, the Independent National Commission on Human rights of Liberia said the issues of pretrial and prolonged detention and conditions of prisons across the country are of human rights concerns to the commission.
The letter signed by Reverend Bartholomew Collins, Acting Chairman of the commission, added that these concerns have culminated into the drafting of the 2016 thematic report on the conditions of prisons and inmates across the country.
The commission pointed out that it sent recommendations to the relevant authorities within the justice sector for redress.
The letter reminded the justice sector of the April 25, 2017 commemoration of Africa Pretrial Detention Celebration to raise the plight of pretrial detainees in these categories for speedy action, which will lead to a drastic decrease in the number and improvement in the conditions of prisons.
Following the above attempts on the human rights commission to begin addressing the problems, the letter went on, a high level conference was convened by the commission in collaboration with relevant stakeholders including judiciary, justice ministry, and UNMIL human rights protection section.
According to the letter, the conference was aim at addressing the conditions of pretrial detainees and conditions of prisons nationwide.
The communication added that additional recommendations were advanced to remedy the problems.
The letter further explained that the conference ended with the establishment of a taskforce comprising of lawyer from the commission, UNMIL Human Rights session and the Ministry of Justice.
The commission maintained that the Supreme Court of Liberia and the judiciary, with funding from international partners, drew a term of reference to address the problems.
The letter made it clear that the work of the taskforce has been completed and reports submitted to the principals of the institutions of the respective partners for actions.
On the basis of the above, the communication said, the commission informed the fellowship that work on the subject has begun and they are gradually approaching the implementation and final improvement stages,
This is expected to occasion a remedy the problem of pretrial detainees and improve the conditions of prisons in Liberia.