Intermittent jailbreaks in Cameroon call for improved incarceration conditions

Prisons are overcrowded with un-sentenced detainees!

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

An unprecedented fire disaster occurred at one of Cameroon's most populated prison - New Bell prison based in the economic capital of Douala recently. In course of the incidence closed to a dozen inmates were burnt, choked or simply trampled upon to death while another 78 sustained varying degrees of burns. For the fact that the prison has had a history of several attempted escapes many believed the fire must have been part of a plan by some inmates to facilitate another escape.
To curb these ugly incidents a new prison is to be built to house between 1,500 and 2,000 inmates. New Bell prison is over-congested. Built in 1933 for 800 inmates, the prison now houses more than 3000 people.
Like other prisons in Cameroon more than two thirds of the inmates are un-sentenced detainees!

There are detainees held for up to 16 years without trial! Could anything justify such a situation? Why does the government in the interest of justice not accept that many detainees have been held for periods equivalent to or even longer than the penal prescription for their crimes?
“Government should view the matter in this way and courageously set them free. Not only would justice have been done, the prisons would also be saved from congestion,” reports the Herald Newspaper. Adding that the small-time crimes committed by an overwhelming number of the un-sentenced detainees such as rape, physical assault, fighting and theft, would not have earned them sentences of anymore than two or three years.
The public should not be made to pay so dearly for a slow or dysfunctional court system, neither should the penitentiary administration which takes blame for the many and increasing number of prison problems.

Meantime, several groups continued to decry dire incarceration conditions at Newbell in particular and other prisons in the country. Charles Tchoungang, President of the Cameroon Bar; Madeleine Afite of the Christian Action Against Torture [ACAT] and Chemuta Divine Banda of the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms all warned that calamity was looming at Newbell.They separately suggested that long-serving pre-trial detainees be freed and some relocated to less-crammed prisons as a means of decongestion.
But Government paid less attention to their suggestion. In defense, Amadou Ali, the country's minister of Justice and keeper of the Seal, claims the state lacked the resources to ensure adequate feeding and medical catering of inmates, a deficiency compensated by kin of incarcerated who visit regularly with food and medicines. According to the Minister whose ministry is in charge of prisons in the country, it would be very costly for the state to regularly transport the inmates for court appearances.
And so, inferably, the status quo will prevail at Newbell and other prisons in the meantime.

According to Madeleine Afite, jailbreak attempts will only multiply especially during the rainy season under which some inmates are forced to sleep for want of space. (most inmates sleep out of the cell)

Initially intended as a military barracks when it was constructed 78 years ago, the rundown Newbell prison located in one of the most busy parts of Cameroon's economic capital and meant for 800, holds 3247 inmates today, 70 percent of whom are under pre-trial detention. As of 1 July this year, it counted 3482 inmates with only 626 sentenced. The rest [2789] were awaiting trial. The story of Newbell prison is not different from many others across the nation.

“We are verging towards a major tragedy”, Barrister Charles Tchoungang told reporters adding that many prisons are suffering from chronic overcrowding compounded by awful feeding, extremely poor health and sanitation conditions, rampant sexual abuse, violence, corruption, inter alia.

For these reasons several inmates die every month in some prisons while minors are raped by adults and detainees must pay to use toilets and mattresses [or sleep standing under the rain!]. Consequently, many juvenile inmates and minor offender leave more delinquent than when they first come to prison.

There is little doubt that such incarceration conditions only motivate inmates to contemplate and attempt breakouts.

On Christmas Day 2007, 20 inmates successfully fled from the Newbell prison while 17 others were shot dead by law enforcement officers as they staged a mass escape last 29 June. And then on 5 August, a detainee Bedou Dakouo of Malian nationality was plucked from the roofs of the prison by a guard as he set the pace for another massive breakout. Other prisons in Buea, in the Southwest Province, Bamenda in the Northwest Province Yoko, in the North of Cameroon and many others have experienced multiple jailbreaks of recent.

Meantime, Amnesty International, has condemned the killings of June, 29, and asked the authorities to launch a probe, warning in passing that until incarceration conditions are improved, jailbreaks at Newbell and other Cameroonian prisons will continue.

Source, The Herald