By Alimatu Jalloh
The Legal Aid Board (LAB) represented 442 convicted inmates whose cases were reviewed at Prison Courts held in five locations in the country. The inmates were among 443 whose cases were brought before the various court. This means only one inmate was represented by a Private Counsel. The inmates had been convicted at Magistrate Courts and were serving their sentences.
The courts sat on diverse dates in September and October 2023 at the Mafanta Correctional Center in the Tonkolili District, Bo Correctional Center in Bo District; Sefadu Correctional Center in Kono District; Waterloo Correctional Center in the Western Area Rural District and the Pademba Road Male Correctional Center in Freetown.
Among the 442 inmates represented by Legal Aid Counsels, 128 were released, 9 were granted bail and the remaining 305 had their sentences either reduced or maintained.
Among those released by the courts, 44 were from the Mafanta Correctional Center; 27 from Bo; 8 from Kono; 22 from Waterloo and 27 from Freetown.
Legal Aid Counsels Mohamed Korie, Osman B. Kamara and Lawyer J.E. Turay represented 104 inmates at the Mafanta Prison Court; John J. Harris and A.K Jawara represented 137 at the Bo Court; Counsel Alpha O Kamara represented 18 at the Kono Court; Counsel Abdul Sesay represented 53 at the Waterloo Court and Counsels Cecilia Tucker and Ibrahim Bangura represented 130 at the Freetown Court.
Addressing some inmates at the Legal Aid Board head office in Freetown, the Executive Director of the Board, Ms. Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles told the inmates that all is not lost and that they have a bright future. ‘I challenge you to go into your communities and transform your lives for the better by engaging in something productive,’ she said.
Ms. Carlton-Hanciles described the provision of legal representation to the inmates at the prison courts as a demonstration of the Board’s commitment to ensuring no inmates goes unpresented because they are poor.
The prison court is an initiative of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone to review cases heard at the Magistrate Courts with a view to ensuring the decisions of those courts are consistent with the law and at the same time decongest the Correctional Centers.