By Foday Moriba Conteh
The issue of overcrowding in our detention facilities – cells and correctional centers – is not new. The country’s post-war history is replete with this malaise. It is the biggest challenge the Legal Aid Board has had to grapple with since its inception in May 2015.
It comes as no surprise the priority of the Board at inception was to reduce the chronic overcrowding at the Pademba Road Correctional Center which had an estimated 1,500 inmates at the time and nearly half of those were remand inmates.
By the end of the year in December 2015, the Board had secured indictments for 326 inmates at the Pademba Road Correctional Center. Thanks to the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice. Moreover, the Board represented 237 indigent accused persons – most from the Pademba Road Correctional Center- standing trial in courts in the Western Area and secured the acquittal and discharge of 76 of them.
The latter include thirteen youths most of them students from the Calaba Town Community who were arrested and charged for attacking the Calaba Town Police Station causing damage to the property, and remanded at the Pademba Road Correctional Center.
For obvious reasons, the references to the work of the Board by way of legal advice and legal representation were limited to the Pademba Road Male Correctional Center and the Female Correctional Center in Freetown. This is because the Board was in its ‘formative year’ in 2015 and expectedly had only one office in the country in Freetown. Moreover, the Board had only five lawyers including its Executive Director and the Legal Aid Manager.
Seven years down the line, things are not getting any better. This is despite the fact that the Board has invested a lot of resources in decongesting the cells and correctional centers by establishing offices in 26 towns and cities and recruiting 18 lawyers and 65 Paralegals on its staff and others.
This has brought about an increase in legal aid services in terms of legal assistance to suspects, Legal advice and Legal Representation to indigent accused persons, mediation of minor criminal matters (such as community level disputes, disorderly behavior, common assault/fighting, insulting and threatening remarks and intimidation) and legal education through community outreach. These services brought about an increase in number of inmates granted bail, issuance of indictments and a reduction in minor criminal matters taken to the police.
The efforts at decongesting the correctional centers received a major impetus with the organization the Judicial Week by the Chief Justice of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards on 31 January to 4 February 2022.
Several positives came out of the Judicial Week more so the hundreds of accused persons who were acquitted and discharged. There is no disputing the fact that this state of affairs has had an instant impact on overcrowding in correctional centers around the country.
More importantly, a meeting comprising Judges, Legal Aid Board, Office of Public Prosecution and the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone was convened by the Chief Justice on the 9th February 2022 for a review of the Week and also look at lessons learned.
The Judges made a strong case for effective supervision and training of Magistrates to prevent a repeat of problems identified in the Judicial Week such as those relating to jurisdictional issues and records management. Also, the Board was singled out for praise by the judges for doing a good job at representing all the cases in the Judicial Week. More importantly, there was acknowledgement of the need to support the Board.
This was apparent in the Judicial Week when the Board had to contract seven lawyers from the Sierra Leone Bar Association to assist with providing representation to 1,013 accused persons who were supposed to appear before the 26 Judges presiding over courts in cities and towns around the country. The 13 Legal Aid Counsels and the 7 contract lawyers secured the discharge of 234 accused persons that appeared before the 26 Judges in the Judicial Week. These include a Guinean and a man who lost his speech and became disabled while on remand at the Pademba Road Correctional Center.
Overall, there is a good chance the gains of the Judicial Week will be sustained and we will start seeing a gradual reduction in inmate population in correctional centers around the country. This is achievable with effectively training and supervision of Magistrate Courts of first instance to ensure they follow the Bail Regulation and Sentencing Guidelines and also ensure proper management of court records.
