Just inside the perimeter walls of Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, England, there was in the early 1980s, an obscure semi circle of rough concrete. Surrounded by black tarmacadam, its greyness almost glared at the passer-by, as a silent announcement of the location of the prison’s gallows. The last execution performed by the apparatus of the State was that of 19 year old James Farell, on 29 the March 1949. The ageing concrete is the only epitaph to him and his predecessors, and yet I never saw anyone step on the unscripted tombstone.
Known as ‘Pademba Road Prison’, Freetown’s Central Prison, is an imposing structure like that of Winson Green Prison. It borders a major traffic artery of the city, but is closed to Prison Service vehicles for a considerable time each night, isolating the prison and its history. The life of the Pademba Road Prison maybe short in comparison with Winson Green Prison but the stories of those who inhabited and died within it are no less disturbing.
In Freetown on 19 July 1975, it was reported that 
fourteen men, all of them senior army and government officials, had been executed, having been found guilty of treason. The fourteen, included Dr Mohamed Sorie Forna, whose story has been carefully researched by his daughter ,the London based author Aminatta Forna, in the book “The Devil Dances on Water”. ( Her recent novel, “The Memory of Love” won the 2011 Orange prize for fiction.) Whilst there are many who can vividly recall that day, few witnessed the spectacle that took place outside the prison, where the men who had died by hanging, were displayed for an hour. The message to a shocked nation was clear, the government of Sierra Leone, a one party state, led by Siaka Stevens, would not tolerate any opposition to its authority.
My visits to the Freetown Central Prison and to the Women’s Prison, located in the cells of the former 
International Special Court, have been frequent for most of this year. During a recent visit Pademba Road Prison, to assist the Sunday morning worship, I asked to be allowed to visit those in the condemned cells. In February the board at the prison gate indicated “Condemned 1” but on that day displayed “2”. The Women’s Prison, with 35 prisoners, registers one.
There in the “condemned section”, close to the chapel, yet isolated from the three-storey high cells, built originally for 325,and now accommodate over 1,200 men, I visited a Muslim prisoner. I found him quietly reading his Quran. As part of the nation’s 5Oth Independence Anniversary, the President of Sierra Leone had pardoned all condemned prisoners who were immediately commuted to serve life sentences. The man I met, along with another prisoner, had, according to The Acting 
Director for Prison’s Mr. Sanpha Bilo Kamara, pleaded to be allowed to remain in relative isolation, as it was more congenial than the freedom being offered in the bigger overcrowded cell blocks.
In discussion with Chief Imam Sorie Sankoh Officer in Charge of Religious Affairs, and a chaplain for over 35 years, he talked of what aspects of his work he enjoyed most and least. His memory of the early years of his service, when he was physically ill on the days of execution, has left him with an abhorrence of capital punishment.
In mid September this year, Penal Reform International held a conference in London titled “Progressing towards the abolition of the death penalty and alternative sanctions that respect international human rights standards”. Among the statements of the London Declaration from the conference, there are two that resonate with the situation in Sierra Leone : the affirmation “that the death penalty undermines human 
dignity and can amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”, and “ that the death penalty creates additional victims, the family members of those who have been executed – who are often forgotten, marginalized, or stigmatised by society”. This is certainly true of the events in Freetown of 19 July 1975, as family members of the fourteen condemned prisoner, have frequently alleged that atrocities occurred a few hours prior to their reported deaths. Brigadier John Bangura, , the man he handed power to President Siaka Stevens,found it hard to believe that his plea for mercy had been turned down, and was beaten to death in the cells for condemned, when he refused to walk to the gallows.
The London Declaration expressed the view that the essential aim of the penitentiary system should be the “reformation and social rehabilitation” of prisoners. In Sierra Leone a new bill, “The Correctional Services Act 2010” seeking to replace legislation dating back to 1960, a year prior to independence, is still waiting parliamentary approval. However it remains to be seen if indeed the proposed reforms with their emphasis on “correction” and not “containment”, will receive the budgetary support needed for implementation from the government.
The film “Shawshank Redemption”, a classic prison-based account of hope over adversity, in which Tim Robbins co-stars with Morgan Freeman, has long been a film Janice and I have found instructive and inspiring. A recent BBC radio interview with Tim Robbins, on his work on drama workshops in a prison project, involved him explaining that
the State of California’s Penitentiaries had, owing to the State’s massive financial problems, deemed that penitentiaries would only endeavour to incarcerate humanely and nothing more. It was, therefore, only externally funded initiatives, like his own, that were addressing the task of reformation and rehabilitation. Recidivism amongst prisoners was, he explained, due to people, and men in particular, not having the capacity to access alternative forms of behaviour, other than raw aggression and violence. When confronted with challenges they responded in ways which saw them re-offending and re imprisoned within a short time of being released. For Robbins, drama workshops and in particular the works of Shakespeare as a source for improvisation, taught men how to identify hitherto hidden aspects as to who they were and could be.
It is difficult to listen to Robbins arguing the case for rehabilitation programmes in prison without connecting it with Susan Sarandon, in the role of Sister Helen Prejean in the film “Dead man walking” portraying the horrors of the death penalty. It is therefore interesting to see the present controversy following her comments on Pope Benedict.
As the last execution in Sierra Leone was carried out in 1998, the country is therefore considered to be de facto abolitionist. With the commuting of the death sentences on those who had been condemned prior to April 1011, to one of “life in prison”, all the signs are of a movement in the right direction on human rights. Nevertheless the death penalty for treason, murder and aggravated robbery is still in place. The government has neither signed nor ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the total abolition of the death penalty.
