Liberia: more than 200 inmates protest amid calls to reform prison system

Jails are routinely severely overcrowded with a lack of access to basic medical facilities

Calls for reform of Liberia’s notorious prison system have intensified after more than 200 inmates held a protest at a facility in the northern Nimba County earlier this month over what they described as the government’s failure to provide them with adequate food and medication.

Complaints about the west African country’s prisons are longstanding. Prisons are routinely severely overcrowded and inmates suffer from a lack of access to basic medical facilities, sanitary items and uniforms.