Thirty officers from the Juba Central Prisons are attending a capacity building training in Juba this week. The exercise ends on Friday today.
The workshop brought together 18 males and 12 are female officers.
The training being conducted by the Justice and Human Rights Observatory (JAHRO) is focusing on equipping the officers with skills on how to calculate sentences for inmates, admission and release of inmates in the country.
This is the third training for the prison service by JAHRO. The first exercise was conducted in Wau, followed by Torit.
Speaking to journalists during the event, Major General Baak Anyar, Director General for Juba Central Prisons says the training will enable prisons officers to effectively discharge their duties.
“The purpose of this training is to help prisons officers to understand the human rights law and rights of the inmates. Secondly, the training also targets to raise the level of understanding of our prisons officers and our soldiers. This is the target of the training.” He said.
Godfrey Victor Bulla, the Executive Director for the Justice and Human Rights Observatory, (JAHRO) says the training is meant to equip the prisons officers with enough skills to manage the inmates.
“In the training, we are taking them through all the processes of admission of an inmate, calculation of sentences, release of an inmate, all the rights of an inmate including the international treaties that recognize the rights of people that are under detention.” He asserted.
Rebecca Ayaa, an officer from the Juba Central Prisons who participated in the human rights training says the training will help them with the skills needed for managing the prisoners.
“This training will help us with the knowledge of managing the inmates in the prisons. Now we will be able to look at the welfare of the inmates.” She said,
The Human Rights lawyers say most prisons officers in South Sudan do not know how to calculate sentences, process for admitting inmates, and the process of releasing them. In addition, most inmates in South Sudan have over stayed in the prisons without any charges.
