STAR radio Liberia - Methodist Monitor on prison over-crowdedness

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Methodist Monitor on prison over-crowdedness

Written by Robert J. Clarke, Jr.

Friday, 17 October 2008

A human rights group has called on government to swiftly deal with the over crowdedness at the Monrovia Central Prison.

The Human Rights Monitors of the United Methodist Church said series of survey carried out at the prison center show deplorable condition for the inmates.

The Program Director of the Monitor, Jefferson Knight told Star Radio as a result of the over crowdedness, the inmates contract diseases from one another.

Mr. Knight said the Monrovia Central Prison was built for five hundred persons but at present more than seven hundred inmates are detained there.

He blamed the over crowdedness on prolonged detention without trail because only sixty-seven of the seven hundred inmates are convicts.

Mr. Knight also cited the lack of drugs and poor sanitary condition at the Monrovia Central Prison as some of the problems facing the inmates.

The Methodist Rights Group said the survey also showed that the prison’s clinic has not been supplied drugs for the past three months.

Mr. Knight also disclosed that cattle are being reared at the Central Prison, which he said is not healthy for the inmates.

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