The Condo Reconciliation Group, a US-based peace advocacy group with office in Monrovia, on Saturday, September 3, 2022 visited the Monrovia Central Prison(MCP) also known as South Beach.
The MCP which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean about 1,400 people are crammed into a space that was initially built for less than 400.
Accordingly, the visit of the MCP is an initiative being embarked upon by Condo to track the detention status of inmates at the various prisons across the country ranging from pretrial, conviction and sentence.
During the visit, a 3-member delegation of Condo led by Rev. Dr. George W. Zorbah, the Administrator of the organization, interviewed several inmates regarding their detention status at South Beach.
The Condo team observed that most of the inmates are pretrial detainees and do not have lawyers to represent them in court, thereby denying them speedy trial.
Some of the crimes committed by the inmates, who strongly lamented their long detention without trial, include murder, rape, theft of property and aggravated assault.
Besides, the long detention without trial, it was also observed that the conditions of the prison remain unfavorable; this situation has long existed in the country’s jails.
The unfavorable conditions include overcrowdings and poor infrastructure and the lack of well-maintained facilities; the lack of proper food for inmates is also one of the many challenges being faced by authorities at the MCP.
The unfavorable conditions at the MCP have been mainly attributed to shortfall on delays in the government releasing funds that should be supplied monthly.
Meanwhile, at the end of the visit, Administrator Zorbah said Condo would do a comprehensive report on its assessment of the conditions of the inmates at the MCP and the prison itself and advance concrete suggestions to national government, local and international partners aimed at addressing the old-aged problems in the country.
