An Indefinite Wait for Freedom
“Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t mean much for the nearly 800 prisoners who are crowded into the dirty, dank prison cells of Liberia’s Monrovia Central Prison. Most have yet to be convicted of a crime – some charged with offences as minor as not paying a bill – but they have languished here for years without a trial.
The devastating 14-year civil war left the country with a minimally functioning justice system that is simply not equipped to handle the incoming and pending cases that await trial. The problem is made worse by the horrific conditions inside the prison, due to the country’s economic hardship and lack of resources. Monrovia Central, Liberia’s largest prison, houses more than four times its capacity and most are pre-trial detainees. The prisoners need more food, water and simple necessities like mattresses.
PF Liberia routinely advocates for the release of pre-trial detainees accused of minor infractions who are held in these conditions for more than two or three years without a trial. Recently the ministry succeeded in securing the release of more than 40 such prisoners from Monrovia Central Prison and Kakata Prison Centre in Margibi County. “Their long detention violated their rights,” explains Francis Kollie, Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Liberia, “and there was not enough evidence to prosecute.”
In many of the cases, PF Liberia acted as a mediator between the offenders and their accusers using restorative justice techniques and reached agreements that led to the prisoners’ release. In other cases, PF simply paid the minor bond fees to the courts that the prisoners had not been able to afford. It is a slow process, as there are inadequate resources, but the difference it is making in the lives of those released is immeasurable.
Of course, PF Liberia continues to make a difference in the lives of those who are still confined inside the crumbling, crammed prison. PF established a medical clinic inside Monrovia Central Prison and using donated funds, the ministry is sending select volunteers to nursing school with the expectation that they will also serve in the prison clinic. The treatment PF has provided so far has already drastically reduced the growing number of common diseases that are so prevalent in overcrowded, septic prisons with malnourished inmates.
Through the work of PF Liberia, suffering prisoners are experiencing
firsthand the compassionate love of Jesus in the midst of a painfully
fallen world.
This article first appeared in Prison Fellowship International’s Global
Link Journal for September 2008.
