A Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the dramatic escape of inmates at the Maseru Correctional Facility in December last year has so far managed to expose the rot in the Lesotho’s prison system. We know from previous reports by the Ombudsman that Lesotho’s prisons are generally in a terrible state. The overcrowding, the lack of basic necessities like functional toilets and toiletries.
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The lack of blankets and broken sewer systems and many others.
We have heard tales, told in whispers, of the brutal sexual violence perpetrated against inmates within the prison walls.
Yet it is telling that none of the prisoners who have testified at the commission since May 13 has sought to highlight any of these glaring shortcomings.
What they have told the Commission are the brutal attacks by prison officers who sometimes execute their tasks in a drunken stupor.
Such attacks appear to be the norm rather than the exception.
Regrettably, the culture within our prisons seems to be one steeped in violence and brute force. That is deeply worrying.
Our prisons are generally one large theatre of ghastly violence, with prison warders egging their comrades on. In seeking to reform prisoners, the warders have generally sought to use violence to enforce discipline.
That has had disastrous consequences.
Last week, an inmate, Tlotliso Bereng, testified in a wheelchair after he sustained a broken spine following a brutal attack by prison warders.
He says he will never be able to walk again following the ordeal.
Bereng told the commission that he was beaten repeatedly with a stick on his spinal cord until he lost sensation on his lower body.
Five other inmates also narrated in graphic detail on how the prison warders brutally assaulted them during the night.
This week, thepost heard of yet another sad story of how one prisoner has been kept in solitary confinement for over 1 065 days after he allegedly “fell out” with a prison manager.
It is a pretty convoluted story with the prisoner and the prison boss exchanging serious allegations. There have been counter allegations of homosexuality that remain unproven.
The two cases which we have cited above only serve to highlight that something has now gone drastically wrong with our prison system. The administrative flaws are just too huge to be ignored.
Of course, the violence against inmates has been a problem that has haunted the prison services for decades. It is part of the “culture” that has become deeply ingrained within the prisons.
That must now be stopped.
The Lesotho Correctional Services needs a new cadre to run its system. Those that have been implicated in the violence must be booted out. They have no moral justification to hold on to their jobs.
That way, the LCS would send an emphatic message to its officers that henceforth no violence against inmates will be tolerated.
We would want to see the LCS initiate disciplinary proceedings against any officer implicated in the gruesome violence. We hope that the Commission will come to a similar conclusion – that these are bad apples that must now be thrown out of the system.
By his own admission the LCS head appears to have lost control of the system. This might be the right time for a new broom to clean the mess.
In the meantime, the LCS should begin thinking how it can adequately compensate those that were killed, maimed for life, as well as those who were hurt during the fracas.
A simple apology will not wash.
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