At least 21 inmates charged with minor crimes were released from Wau Central Prison in South Sudan’s Western Bahr al Ghazal State.

The decision was taken by the state government, high court, and South Sudanese businessman Makiir Gai who sponsored the payment of inmates' fines.

Charles Abyei, head of the judiciary in the state, said about 87 inmates will be released from the Wau Prison, besides 17 others from Raja Prison.

He explained that the judiciary and prisons authorities plan to start releasing 20 inmates every day starting with women.

Charles praised the initiative taken by Makiir to pay the fines and called on the other local business people to take similar steps as a way of resolving overcrowding in the prison.

The judge noted there are 681 prisoners including 22 women accomodated inside a building specified to accommodate 250 inmates only.

For their part, several released inmates expressed happiness to reunite with their families. They thanked Makiir Gai and the state government for releasing them.

Meanwhile, Stephen Moses, coordinator of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) community described the step taken to release the inmates as “important”. Moses stressed the need to develop programs to rehabilitate those who were released so they don’t return to prison again.

The activist also called for joint efforts to build a new prison and organize capacity-building programs for the inmates in order help in the development of South Sudan.

File photo: Scene of Wau town, Catholic Cathedral (Creative Commons License/Flickr/hypermobility)