By Mafugi Ceesay
Ousman Saidybah, the public relations officer of the Drug Law Enforcement Agency, has said in an interview with The Standard that Central Prisons Mile II has no reform programme for prisoners.
Mr Saidybah also said the majority of the people taken to the prisons are on drug related issues and that is why the narcotic courts have been increased to five from one.
The DLEA spokesman also disclosed that as a result of this, most of the people taken to Mile II for drug abuse come out as drug traffickers. “So instead of being reformed they come out worse,” he said.
He maintained that “instead of prison serving as a rehabilitation centre, it is seen as a punishment facility where inmates are kept away from the society, forgetting that they are there for certain periods of time and not for life”.
Saidybah said this, among many reasons, is why a majority of the former prisoners will have no jitters about returning to prison where they know they will not spend anything to maintain themselves.
According to him, there is a need to dedicate more resources to the rehabilitation areas.
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