September 16, 2015 By Victoria Saffa
Director of Don Bosco Fambul, Brother Lother Wagner, has called on the attention of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs that there are children under the age of 18 years detained at the male correctional center on Pademba Road in Freetown.
He raised the concern yesterday at a round-table discussion with media practitioners, and requested the transfer of these prisoners to either the juvenile homes or the Approved School at Wellington in the east of the capital.
In attendance were representatives from different organisations, including the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and several media houses.
Wagner also called on the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice to release up to 79 inmates at the maximum security prison’s Clarkson House that have been waiting for their indictments since 2012 or even longer than that period.
He revealed that one month ago they sent a letter to different stakeholders, including the Minister of Justice, the Human Rights Commission, the Master and Registrar of the High Court, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the State House Chief of Staff, and the Director of Public Prosecution, alerting them about the development, but that despite this call, only one prisoner has been released after receiving his indictment.
He called for urgent reforms in the policing system and the judiciary so that the issue of abuses against prisoners could be addressed.