Don Bosco Fambul, a charitable local non-governmental organisation, has retrieved 118 warrants through the Pa Demba Prison Project to ensure the release of prisoners who have completed their jail terms.
The retrieval of the warrants took place in a two-week nationwide tour in courts and correctional facilities across the country to facilitate the production of new warrants for inmates whose warrants were lost to the riots.
It is hoped that the retrieval of the warrants would help correctional authorities to identify and release from their custody, inmates who have completed their jail terms.
The aftermath of April, 29 riots at the country’s central correctional facility in Freetown left the facility in ruins and several documents burnt down.
The burnt documents were official court records of convicted inmates that were kept inside the Main Pa Demba Road Correctional Centre.
Owing to constraint faced by Prison authorities to retrieve the original copies of these documents, inmates who have completed their jail term are still stuck and languishing in prison cells.
Don Bosco Fambul, through its Pa Demba Prison Emergency Project intervention, responded to the call of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service to offer them financial and logistical aid to facilitate the retrieval of warrants of convicted inmates.
A total of 113 warrants have been secured from the South-East provincial courts and correctional centres and five secured from Port Loko.
The correctional service authorities are still processing more warrants for convicted inmates who are still stuck in prison.
Don Bosco, Fambul through its sponsors across the world including Raul from Spain has facilitated the release of over 25 inmates with minor offences as well as those who have completed their jail terms.
Under the Don Bosco Emergency Programme, more than 500 inmates including those who sustained injuries during the April, 29 incident received medical treatment and food.
CREDIT: Don Bosco PR Department