The overcrowded Monrovia Central Prison that has suffered several jailbreaks in the past three years will be relocated next year, authorities at the Ministry of Justice disclosed here when President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf visited the prison Friday and pardoned 9 inmates charged with minor offenses.

Now overcrowded with some 920 inmates, the Monrovia Central Prison which was constructed in the 1960s at South Beach to accommodate 350 inmates, will be relocated to Cheesemanburg on the Monrovia-Tubmanburg highway, Solicitor General Wilkins Wright told this paper Friday in an interview.

Cllr. Wright said the Justice Ministry has acquired more than   20 acres of land in Cheesemanburg for the construction of a new prison to relocate inmates held at the South Beach prison.

He said the new structure will have several facilities including vocational, agricultural and recreational activities for the inmates.

“With Monrovia taking the population of the entire country you have to understand that the crime rate here is the highest around the country, and therefore, this facilitate (the Monrovia Central Prison) has more people than it should have,” Cllr. Wright explained reason over crowdedness of the prison.

“We have enough space so that there will be not just the detention facilities but there will be space for agriculture, adequate space for recreation and other things that will rehabilitate the people so that when they are released they will become better citizens,” he added.

On the issue of jailbreaks, the Solicitor-General said government was working with the offices of the Assistant Justice Minister for Litigation on psychosocial counseling for inmates to prevent the recurrence of  jailbreaks.

Cllr. Wright: “If we just hold the inmates like animals, then it does not serve the purpose.  But if we give them skills…we give them counseling mentally that can help to transform their minds so that when they leave they will not leave worse than they came. Then they will leave as better people.”

Meanwhile, in a Christmas gesture, President Sirleaf presented several bags of rice, cartons of fish, mattresses and many pairs of shower slippers to inmates at the prison, and instructed the Ministry of Justice to review their files for possible release of those held for minor offenses.