The Board made some modest achievements in 2015. It forged partnership with key justice sector players, finalized the Legal Aid Guide, adopted a three year Strategy Plan at a workshop in September 2015 and organized capacity building trainings for staff and partners.
Most importantly, the Board secured the acquittal and discharge of 76 inmates mostly from the Pademba Road Correctional Center. It had 237 ongoing matters in the courts and submitted a total of 326 names of inmates at the Pademba Road Correctional Center to the Law Officers Department for issuance of indictments.
Also there were discussions around the unique and ambitious nature of the Legal Aid Act 2012 which had implications for the effectiveness of the scheme. Dr. Henry Mbawah the then Coordinator of the Justice Sector Coordination Office was very instrumental in providing support and guidance.
The Board is unique in the sense that unlike the Public Defence model which provides criminal legal aid only, the Legal Aid Board provides both criminal and civil legal aid. In the case of the former it prosecute matters only, while in the case of the latter it can defend or prosecute matters.
Another unique feature of the Board is that it provides legal aid and regulate legal aid provision in Sierra Leone. In the case of the latter, it derives the authority from Section 37 (2) (a) (b) of the Legal Aid Act 2012 which provides that a person or organization who provides legal aid without being accredited or whose cooperation agreement with the Board has elapsed or has been terminated and who continues to provide legal aid, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding thirty million leones or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years. Moreover, the Board monitors and evaluates the quality of legal aid provided by persons and groups/organizations providing legal aid. This is used to determine qualification for renewal of accreditation on an annual basis.
The discussions also include the expansion of the Board beyond the Western Area. There were those who hold the view that the Board should not be in a hurry to open offices upcountry but rather consolidate in the Western Area for the time being. Others including the Executive Director held a contrary view.
As the heavens could have it, 2016 saw massive expansion in the operations of the Board due to increase funding from Government and support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). Six new offices were opened in six of the twelve districts upcountry at the time in August. These include one office in each of the three Regional Headquarter Towns and one office each in Port Loko, Kono and Moyamba Districts. Each of the six offices had two Paralegals. The three regional offices had a Resident Lawyer, an Administrative and Finance Assistant and an Outreach Officer each.
The Board received a massive boost following support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in the fourth quarter of 2016. The Board was able to recruit thirty-five Paralegals bringing to forty-one the total number of Paralegals on the staff.
With this support, the Board was able to establish a presence in the six of the remaining Districts and also increased the number of paralegals in the six other districts which had offices. It deployed at least two paralegals in each of the twelves districts upcountry at the time. These deployments consolidated the Board’s position as the largest legal aid organization in the country.
Twenty four thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight (24,768) indigent persons or poor people benefitted from the scheme from inception in May 2015 to December 2016. These include seven police officers who were acquittal and discharged for unlawfully killing Francis Hafner by Justice Miata Samba on 25 November 2016.
The Board introduced new programs in 2016. The Alternative Dispute Resolution/ Mediation service was introduced in the head office in Freetown in March 2016. This was replicated in the offices in the regions – Makeni, Bo and Kenema – at the time of their establishment in August 2016.
The department mediated civil matters and community level disputes at no cost to the parties involved. These include family disputes, child and spousal maintenace, debts, eviction, land issues, labour matters, employer/employee relations, marital and family disputes and community level problems. Morethan sixty persent of matters medaited were child maintenace cases.
I was recruited in June 2016 as Registrar to spearhead the implementation of the regulatory function of the Board. These include the Accreditation of Legal Aid Providers meaning persons and groups providing legal aid. My office is also responsible for monitoring and evaluating accredited legal aid providers to ensure the quality of legal aid services provided meet minimum standards prescribed by the Board.
The Board organized the first consultative meetings for legal aid providers around the country in December 2016. The meetings were held in Freetown, Makeni, Bo and Kenema respectively. The meetings accorded the Board the opportunity to interact with and learn from their experiences. The legal aid providers on the other hand were educated on the Legal Aid Act 2012 and issues relating to the regulatory powers of the Board. While the Board had achieved quite a lot in providing legal aid to the poor and vulnerable around the country, it was important to underline the complementary role of other legal aid providers in the provision of legal aid.
The Board was going to impose a fee for accreditation of Legal Aid Providers but had to abandon the idea after the Executive Director for the Center for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), Abdul Fatoma insisted on the part of the Legal Aid Act 2012 which speaks to this subject matter. Unfortunately, the Legal Aid Guide which deals with this issue was a long way from becoming a law.
As part of efforts at empowering communities to take ownership of their justice needs, the Board introduced Community Advisory Bureaus in the Western Area. The Bureaus are run by volunteers drawn from fourteen groups in the community as stipulated in the bye-laws for the Bureaus. It comprises representatives of women, children, youth, civil society and religious groups, retirees, Justices of the Peace and Police Partnership Board. The Bureaus which are supervised by the Board provide primary justice services such as provision of basic information on criminal and civil matters, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)/Mediation of community level disputes, Referral of criminal matters from traditional justice mechanisms presided over by tribal chiefs to the police and organizing Community Outreach events.
The Board was confronted with the issue of reintegration of clients released by the courts, something it never foresaw. Those who had benefitted from the scheme particularly remand inmates who were released by the courts and were reintegrating into society kept coming to the office to complain about rejection, name-calling, discrimination, unemployment and lack of skills training opportunities, rather than making such complaints to the relevant Ministries, Agencies and Departments.
There was the troubling case of a juvenile from Regent Road in Lumley, Freetown who was rejected by his relatives upon his release by the court and had to live on the streets. The homeless boy was subsequently arrested and charged to court for loitering. The Board represented him for the second time and secured his release. Also, a former client complained of how members of his community were calling him a murderer.
Unemployment was also a big issue among former beneficiaries of the scheme as such they struggle to afford basic necessities back in the community. As such they were missing the prison which provided them food and accommodation.
Against this backdrop, the Board developed a reintegration programme for former clients. The initiative entails developing messages for community outreach events. The messages focused on acceptance of former prison inmates to ensure peaceful coexistence. They also include messages on the relevant laws on this subject matter.
The initiative was discussed with the executive of the National Farmers Federation including its President Jesse Olu John at a meeting in July 2016. The Federation decided to assist with the reintegration of beneficiaries of the scheme by providing them employment in agriculture. The Federation employed 30 beneficiaries of the scheme for the 2016 cropping season. There was a commitment to increase the number in the next cropping season.
Also, many clients were sick, some seriously at the time of their release from prison. They could not afford the cost of medical treatment. Based on an appeal from the Board, the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Head of the Connaught Government Hospital agreed to provide free medical assistance to this group of clients. Zachariah Koroma who got blind at the Pademba Road Correctional Center was among those who benefited from the gesture. He regained his sight and subsequently went into masonry.