By Bosco Bush
Aweil Central Prison, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, is facing a severe overcrowding crisis, with an overwhelming number of inmates, including juveniles, according to local authorities.
Speaking to this outlet, the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Minister of Information, Garang Zechariah Lual, revealed that the state governor recently visited the Aweil Prison over the weekend and witnessed a “dire” situation firsthand.
Lual stated that the prison is currently housing around 800 inmates, far exceeding its intended capacity.
“Yesterday (Friday) our governor visited the prison and what we found was that the number of people in the prison is not supposed to be there. Because the space the space is too small. The number of inmates is 800,” he said.
“I myself was there yesterday with the governor and the situation was so dire. It’s really very unfortunate that some of these kids were in the prison,” Lual expressed.
He revealed that the state governor will on Monday meet with the leadership of the prison and the judiciary to look into some of the cases that have never been attended to because he believes that “most of them are remands,” that have delayed without court proceedings.
“Some people have been there for a year without being presented to the judges,” he added.
Lual further revealed that the meeting anticipated on Monday will assess certain cases that do not seem to comprehend the seriousness of imprisonment. Subsequently, the government will provide funds to release some of the individuals.
“We are also going to get a detailed report from the prison so that we know exactly why some of these people are in the prison. If there are some small cases where these people are arrested, for example if someone is just demanded for small amount of money, the state government is going to look into that and pay for that to release some of the people,” Lual revealed.
Responding to the juvenile matter, he confirmed there are “so many” children imprisoned for cases related to theft, and fighting and some were involved in rape cases.
“They were so many and when we ask, it was just a general report that some of them were arrested because of theft, fighting and some were involved in rape cases. We didn’t get a detail report about each child that is in the prison. We are also going to work into that so that some children with minor cases are released,” he responded.
Lual urged parents to take care of their children. Because he believes that some of these cases were a result of parental negligence.