By Emmanuel F. Sanosi
One of the fruits of the Cameroon - European Union Cooperation is the concerned attention that has been given to prisons and detainees in recent years. Besides the cooperation's central focus on the paralegal parameters existing in prisons and the availability of correct juridical provisions and observations, a giant step has also been taken through a new project known by its French acronym PACDET. Within the framework of the second phase some didactic materials has been given to Bamenda Prison primary school.
The donation, estimated at FCFA 2million, was made recently at the prison compound, during a ceremony that brought together prison administrators, the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission and some other stakeholders whose charitable works target prisons and their inmates.
Presenting the gifts on behalf of PACDET II, the European Union legal overseer for Littoral, South West, West and North West prisons ,Hyppolite Sando, lamented the difficult economic context coupled with a judgemental population which render less visible efforts to make prison life a time of social reintegration.
He recalled the 1992 decree regulating Cameroon's penitentiary sector and "consecrating certain dispositions to leisure as well as to cultural and intellectual activities. "To this effect", he continued, "Article 62 authorises each penitentiary institution to organise courses and to make books available to inmates. I am talking about making the period of incarceration a time of useful apprenticeship and I am happy to note that the Bamenda Central Prison boasts of a full cycle primary school with a competent and qualified personnel."
He rounded off by comforting the inmates, to whom he said a prison sentence is not the end of the road. He also applauded government's preoccupation with the future of prisoners. "Although in prison, the prisoner can still continue his or her education and contribute to development through the fruit of his work". He advised both detainees and prison authorities to handle the donated books with care, for they shall be used by many in the future.
The prison superintendent expressed gratitude to both the government and the European Union, while acknowledging the role Church organisations and other civil associations have shown and continue showing in the welfare of detainees and the conditions under which they are forced to serve their sentences.
The Bamenda Central Prison is the only penitentiary institution in the country with a built-in primary school. Created some 25 years ago by Rev Br Hubb and Fr Nielen with the collaboration of retired prison superintendent,Richard Titang, this school now has a complete primary cycle and Forms one and Two. It also has students in higher secondary classes in various colleges around Bamenda.
Being a full time boarding school, the Juvenile Reformatory Centre admits young men and women with a criminal record and those awaiting trial. These children are mostly from broken families, children of single parents, orphans and street children. The centre thus has a daunting mission in trying to reintegrate them into society.
Because of the erratic nature of the prison, the school often experiences disruptions in its enrolment, which currently stands at 40, as some have to leave when acquitted or when their sentences come to an end. Most of these children are sponsored by the Catholic Prison Chaplaincy. There are three buildings that serve as classrooms, a dormitory, workshop, staff rooms, store, library and kitchen.
Happily enough, many products of this school are today leading decent and productive lives. If there is one thing this institution desperately desires besides all the material and financial support society can offer, it will be to have a PTA, but for the murky background of the pupils.
This may not be easily feasible, for with a PTA, the school will in a way have its own parents and defeat the very individual background of its pupils who come mostly from broken homes. Until such a time, this centre will have to continue depending on the goodwill of church groups and especially the Cameroon-European Union Cooperation.
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