LAB and Correctional Service draw battle lines.

LAB and Correctional Service draw battle lines.

The Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board, Ms. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles has expressed utter disgust at a report from a partner organization in Waterloo regarding the treatment of remand inmates attending court in that part of the country.

This came about after the meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the Waterloo-based Technical Integration Training Youth for Social Action, Morris Kamara- Foday who intimated Ms. Carlton-Hanciles that remand intimates from the Pademba Road Correctional Center are kept for hours in the poorly ventilated oven-like truck called Black Maria whilst waiting for their cases to be called up in court. They are immediately bundled to the Black Maria after their cases have been heard by the Magistrate, where they will have to wait for hours to be driven back to the Pademba Road Correctional Center. 

‘The remand inmates spend not less than one hour on the road to Waterloo and are then kept for several hours in the Black Maria in the scorching sun waiting for their turn in court,’ Kamara-Foday told Ms. Carlton-Hanciles. ‘Also, those from the Waterloo Police Station who are making their first appearance in court are kept in a cell shaped like a water tank with hardly any ventilation.’

Kamara-Foday told Ms. Carlton-Hanciles that his protestations at the treatment of the remand inmates have been ignored.

Ms. Carlton-Hanciles has vowed this will not be tolerated in the New Year. ‘Remand inmates have rights which should be protected,’ she said. ‘The Correctional Service must find a proper place to keep those waiting to attend court or forget about taking them to Waterloo. We will settle down for an open detention but not in the Black Maria Truck I will assure everybody.’

Ms. Carlton-Hanciles disclosed that she is deploying three Paralegals in the Western Rural District in the New Year. ‘Their first task will be to keep an eye on how remand inmates taken to Waterloo are treated,’ she said. ‘This is why I am deploying Mr. Gibril Jalloh in Waterloo, who is very experience in Court Monitoring.’ 

In addition, Ms. Carlton-Hanciles has threatened to take up the matter with the Chief Justice as last resort. ‘These abuses should not happen under the watch of the judiciary’ she stressed.