The County Coordinator of Grand Cape Mount Bai L. Sherman is calling on authorities to address the lack of water at the prison facility in the county as the issue poses security threats to citizens.
Speaking at the opening of the November A.D. Term of Court on Monday, November 11, 2024, Sherman said authorities should be able to work along with the water corporation in the county to reduce the alarming threats of allowing inmates to fetch their own water outside of the prison facility.
He said it poses serious risks to citizens seeing more than 15 prisoners moving with gallons in search of water with only one prison officer assigned to them.
Sherman said, “It’s a risk to see prisoners going out for water for their own use,” let them remain in the prison facility until they can be tried. The early warning sign is to do something about it.”
It can be recalled that former Chief Justice Gloria Musu-Scott sent to jail after a guilty verdict, lamented on the deplorable condition faced by prisoners, mainly women and girls, craving the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) to supply the prison facility with water.
Now, this issue of water has entered into the remote counties where defendants go in search of water for their personal use.
Cllr. Scott, who is now a free woman, pointed out at the time that water is one of the most pressing needs of the already overcrowded prison and pleaded with authorities responsible to do an assessment on how water can be brought into the prison compound; adding that “it is difficult to get water from the wells.”
But Varney Lake, Superintendent of the Prison, pleaded with national government and international partners to assist the prison management with food, water, among other necessary materials for prisoners. He said the water situation at the Central Prison is a concern that needs to be looked at with urgency.
By T.Q. Lula Jaurey
