By Ruth Yeabu Sesay
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has funded a two-day training of officers at Sierra Leone Correctional Services (SLCS) on how to classify inmates based on their conduct.
According to the Public Relations Manager, Leslie Cole-Showers the training will help the officers learn how to classify the inmates based on observation after which they will be able to recommend that they are either low or high risk inmates.
He further explained that based on their behavior an inmate maybe separated from the high risk inmates or put together, noting that the inmate are not treated or classified due to the crimes that led to their incarceration, but on their conduct whilst at the correctional centre.
Cole-Showers said that exercise was named Refresher Training on Inmate Classification and Best Practices because it has been done for the sixth time now.
The Deputy Director General of the SLCS David Ngaujah admitted that classification is hard to achieve due to the overcrowded nature of correctional centres, citing the Pademba Road Correctional Centre which is considered the largest and most congested in the country.
He called on the government to take deliberate steps in providing the infrastructure which will ensure the SLCS implement the classification properly.
Ngaujah said that one way the SLCS administration can attain professionalism is by conducting such trainings regularly.
Speaking at the opening, the director of human resource of SLCS Lamin Bangura encouraged and advised participants to be attentive and to display the will to learn.
The training which ended yesterday 8th November 2022 was conducted for twenty-two officers of different ranks at SLCS.
Copyright (09/11/22)
