A new joint research launched on Monday 10th August 2020 by AdvocAid and Cyrus R. Vance Centre for International Justice suggests that overcrowding in female prisons risks exposing detainees to COVID-19. The report is part of the Vance Centre’s Women in Prison Project, and its research team interviewed 86% of the women detained in the country between November and December 2019. The first comprehensive study of women in Sierra Leone’s prisons finds 62% of those interviewed were pre-trial detainees and that pretrial detention contributes to overcrowding, which is alarming with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a joint statement issued by both organisations, court backlogs and strict bail conditions lead to women languishing in pre-trial detention for excessive time periods. “This is a main cause of overcrowding, which, combined with limited access to water and sanitation, is putting detained women in alarmingly precarious conditions as the current COVID-19 pandemic rages on.” AdvocAid has been calling on the government to release vulnerable, low risk and pre-trial detainees. However, contrary to the global trends, Sierra Leone is yet to release any prisoners. A corrections officer at the Freetown female correctional centre said there are 64 inmates in a space meant to hold 18. “We have been using offices as cells for inmates, some even share a bed because there is no space.”
In an open letter to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 19 organisations from the Women in Prison Network convened by the Vance Centre, called for measures to reduce overcrowding in women’s prisons to slow the spread of COVID-19. Another key finding of the study says the criminalisation of poverty is one of the main reasons for over incarceration of women, with 71% of interviewees saying that before going to prison they could only afford one or two meals per day. The study discloses almost half had been the main earners of their households and 88% were taking care of at least one child before their arrests. 34 % of the women interviewed had been arrested and detained for economic or petty crimes, often committed for their survival or that of their loved ones.
“I have eight children and sometimes it was just impossible to take care of them all. So I borrowed some money from a friend but when I couldn’t pay back she turned me in to the police. I am so worried, who will make sure that my children go to school and are well fed now?” asked a woman in prison. The study further revealed that majority of incarcerated women are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence – 48% during their childhood, 72% as adults at the hands of their partners, and 45% during adulthood from someone other than their partner.
Out of the 24% of women in prison for committing a crime against their partner, 94% reported that the partner beat, bullied, belittled, or sexually harmed them before they committed the crime.
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque