Officials guilty of prisoners' escape will replace them in jail - Administration

Secretary of State for Penitentiary Administration in Cameroon Doh Jerome has warned that prison administrators and guards who through acts of negligence or willfully assist inmates to escape from prison will replace them in jail.

He was speaking Monday Dec. 15, during a meeting in Yaounde grouping regional delegates and prison administrators in the country. The two days meeting is reviewing the situation of jailbreaks among other issues affecting the prison system in the country.

Doh Jerome warned that those who are accomplices to the escape of prisoners will either be dismissed from the corps or will replace the inmates in jail.

“You can imagine that we have hardened criminals in our prisons and if such prisoners escape it means that our justice system has been put to ridicule and also the security of the population is at stake.” He said.

Overcrowding, poor feeding and torture of prisoners is often said to contribute to jailbreaks in many prisons in the country. The prison administrators are calling on the Ministry of Justice to increase the budget allocated for the feeding of prisoners and also to renovate the dilapidating prison structures.

They also raised the problem of trafficking in prohibited items by inmates especially hard drugs. The Secretary announced the rehabilitation of some 22 prisons including Bali Prison in the North West and Douala-Ngoma prison in the Littoral that are under construction.