Prison inmates across Sierra Leone were early this month provided with fresh supplies of bedding as part of an effort to make their dwelling more accommodating.
The prison authorities say 4,438 inmates at the various Correctional Centres in the country benefitted from the exercise which included foam mattresses, pillows and blankets.
The Deputy Director General of the country’s prisons, Dennis Harman is quoted in news release from the Strategic Communications Unit at State House as saying that the distribution exercise was made possible by the government of Sierra Leone.
He said the supplies were made once a year often coinciding with the beginning of the rainy season.
“During the rainy season, the atmosphere would become very cold and to keep the inmates warm, we would change their beddings during this period. So, the supply of beddings at this time of the year is always timely,” Herman said.
He spoke on ongoing projects relating to the reformation of the prisons, adding that a new correctional centre was being constructed in Waterloo, just outside Freetown, and was expected to be completed by the first week of August.
This facility, he said, would host 120 male and 10 female inmates, thereby helping to decongest the Male Correctional Centre along Pademba Road in Freetown.
He also spoke about efforts on the food security front, noting that the institution was seeking to complement the government’s effort through cultivating crops in the provincial areas. Notable areas where rice cultivation is ongoing include Kabala and Mafanta, where they are doing inland valley swamp (IVS) farming. In Mafanta alone, some 60 hectares of land have been cultivated with sorghum, corn, cassava and rice, he said.
There are also ongoing construction projects for child friendly centres, designed to accommodate children of female inmates, in Freetown and Kenema. Harman said these were now being completed.
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