By Alimatu Jalloh
The Hon. Acting Chief Justice Hon. Justice Nicholas C. Browne-Marke has called on the people in the southern district of Bo District to employ what he called “community parenting” to counter the increased crime rate.
The Ag. Chief Justice made this call while addressing over two hundred inmates at the Male Correctional Centre in Bo which was built for eighty (80) inmates. He disclosed that the Male Correctional Centre in Bo is badly overcrowded with ninety percent (90%) of the inmates below the age of thirty, adding that such prevailing circumstances at the centre should be of concern not only to the Judiciary and the Sierra Leone Correctional Services but to all parents in the township.
“As a parent myself, I am not happy to see young people like you in prison and this is not good for the future of this country. How can we say the future belongs to the young when most of them are behind bars?” the Ag. Chief Justice lamented.
He stressed that the rate at which young people are involving in crime is worrisome and the only solution to this situation is to revamp the traditional way of bringing up children which was to a very large extent community parenting.
The Ag. Chief Justice revealed that the just concluded Prison Court conducted across the country discharged over one hundred inmates from the Bo Correctional Centre whilst some were granted bail, but he added that within just three weeks, the centre is again overcrowded. He maintained that this existential problem requires a collaboration among community leaders, paramount chiefs, religious leaders and parents with proven track records to reintroduce community parenting. The Chief Justice alluded to their era of growing up as children, when with the stern support of their respective biological parents, the upbringing of children was the responsibility of the entire community. He admonished them to stay away from harmful drugs as it is one of the key reasons why most of them are behind bars.
The Manager of the Correctional Centre, Chief Superintendent David Kamara said, the centre is currently hosting two hundred and forty-nine inmates (249) with sixty-six (66) remand inmates and seventy-two (72) trial inmates making it a total of one hundred and thirty-eight (138) who are presently attending court.
“If not for the just concluded Prison Court exercise, the centre would have been hosting more than two hundred and more inmates,” he revealed, adding that with the new court facilities, particularly with the supply of electricity through a standby generator, the judge will expeditiously try the seventy-two inmates on trial and the magistrates will complete the sixty-six remand inmate.
The resident judge in Bo district who also covers Kenema, Hon. Justice Abu Bakarr Sannoh informed the Hon. Chief Justice that most of the remand and trial inmates are on bail with flexible conditions. He stated that those who are still in detention are those who couldn’t meet their bail conditions.
He said one of the key reasons for them not to meet the bail conditions is due to the fact that most of the inmates have their respective family members out of Bo and they the inmates came to Bo to fend for themselves, hence, have no reliable sureties.
Mr. Mohamed Sowa who resides in Bo lauded the wakeup call by the Hon. Chief Justice for community parenting to be instituted as one of the best solutions in ensuring that crime rate in the township is curtailed. “With the introduction of Kush and other illegal harmful substances, our communities are no longer safe for the upbringing of our children and it is now more tedious to bring up a child in these communities now than ever before,” he stated.
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