Christian is 24. He was sent to prison in Togo in 2005. He spent 5 months there before being tried. He tells us about conditions inside the prison.
Christian was sent to Atakpame prison in Togo in September 2005. He spent 5 months there before being tried. (In Togo, young offenders often face long pre-trial detentions, even though the law states that no-one should be kept for more than 10 days without charge). He was accused of fraud and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Conditions in the prison are dirty, noisy and violent. Children and young people are locked up with adults. There isn’t any healthcare or medical support and no doctors or nurses onsite at the prison. Hygiene is pretty poor, as most people don’t have products like soap. The cells are crowded and sleep 30 inmates to a cell. They are only given food once a day at midday and are given maize or rice, sometimes with meat or fish.
Christian is concerned that many young people are arrested and sent to prison because they are accused of petty crimes, but when they reach prison they are detained with adults who have committed serious crimes and they learn the ‘tricks of the trade’. He gave an example of a young man who had been released from Atakpame prison, where he had served a sentence for a petty crime, only to be sent back a month later for stealing a car.
Most of Atakpame’s inmates only have the clothes they were arrested in. Christian says that only about 30 inmates receive visits from families or friends who bring them extra clothing, food, basic sanitary products and medicines. However, many families live far away from Atakpame and some don’t even know that their children are in prison. The inmates have no access to a phone, but can send letters through a prison guard.
