Prisons overcrowding, a decaying situation for prisoners in Cameroon!

Prisons overcrowding, a decaying situation for prisoners in Cameroon! Overcrowding in prisons is a prevailing problem across many countries in Africa, with the ill practice of holding prisoners on remand compounding the issue. The result is... that in Cameroon a good majority of the prison population is made up of those awaiting trial. Investigations clearly show that prison conditions are inhumane and fundamentally breach human rights. Overcrowding is such that some prisoners sleep on bare floor in the very cold weather of Buea in the rainy season and very hot during the dry season. Poor prisoners face physical, financial and language barriers and in most cases do not have a lawyer. A great majority of those incarcerated in the Buea central prison come from the rural areas and neighboring villages with very low income (below $2 per day) and most of them are primary school drop out; they do not speak English and can barely understand the language of the court.