For the first time since March 2020, families and friends will be allowed to visit inmates at the Freetown Male Correctional Centre on Pademba Road beginning next week.
The Sierra Leone Correctional Service (SLCS) announced on Monday that it will open its facility to families and friends on Tuesday November 3, 2020.
“The SLCS is aware of the looming presence of the COVID- 19, and in that light has put measures in place to ensure the safety of inmates, officers, and visitors,” SLCS said in a statement it put out on Monday.
However, minor adjustments have been made to the visiting procedures, especially for Freetown.
For many families and friends of inmates, Tuesday will be the first time they will set eyes on their loved ones since March, when the Sierra Leone Correctional Service suspended visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the statement, visitors should pre-book at the Correctional Service Headquarters a day before visiting, and visits will take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10:OO am-3:00pm at the Freetown Male Correctional Centre (Pademba road).
The conditions of each visit are subject to COVID-19 restrictions.
“For security reasons, visitors will not be allowed to bring along food items for inmates, but they can buy such items in the tuck shops within Correctional facilities,” the SLCS said in the statement.
According to regulation, visitors cannot bring more than the sum of Le 200, 000 for inmates, and visitors and inmates must wear face mask.
Drastic COVID-19 restrictions instituted by the Correctional Service, such as restricted movement within the correctional facility, suspension of visitation, and closing the tuck shop (retail outlet) within the correctional facility resulted in a riot in the Freetown Male Correctional Centre on April 29, 2020, which resulted in the killing of 30 inmates and a prison guard, according to a joint study conducted by SLCS and Government of Sierra Leone.
Freetown’s Male Correctional Centre houses more than 1,300 inmates, a centre that had been originally built to hold 324 inmates.
By Sallieu S. Kanu
27/10/2020. ISSUE NO: 7938