The men and women who train Liberia’s corrections officers are now proudly wearing new polo shirts donated by the Swedish Prisons and Probation Service (SPPS.) The donation was made in recognition of the work done to raise professional standards of prison personnel nationwide.

 
In all, 100 shirts costing US$ 5,000 were handed over to Hilary Siakor-Sirleaf, Liberia’s Assistant Minister of Justice in charge of the Bureau of Corrections and Rehabilitation, at a ceremony held at UNMIL Headquarters in Monrovia on 9 April.
 
Accepting g the donation, the Assistant Minister thanked the Swedish Prison and Probation Service and the people and government of Sweden for their “continuing assistance to the people of this nation.”  He also thanked the UNMIL Corrections and Advisory Unit for helping rebuild Liberia’s prison service.  “We owe you a debt of gratitude,” he said.

Marjo Callaghan, Chief of UNMIL’s Corrections and Advisory Unit , said the UN is working in partnership with the government of Liberia to train a further 300 corrections officers within the next three years.

The donation of polo shirts from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service came with the promise of more to come from Sweden. “The SPPS is proud to hand over these shirts intended for the national trainers as a small recognition of their achievement so far, and encouragement for the challenges to come,” wrote Jonas Lindgren, an official of the SPPS in a letter to the government which was shared with UNMIL Today.  “The SPPS will strive to identify further sets of equipment and spares to be donated from the SPPS to the Bureau of Corrections and Rehabilitation,” added Lindgren.

 It was in May last year that Karin Andersson and Patrick Dalfjard, two Swedish SPPS officers assigned to  UNMIL Corrections and Advisory Unit, set up a training of trainers programme for Liberian corrections officers.

Funded by the Swedish government, the course was titled “Smart Security and use of non-lethal force including self defence.”  A total of 187 officers underwent this training programme including 37 women.

In order to make the capacity building process sustainable Dalfjard and Andersson initially trained 30 trainers of whom seven were women. These Liberian trainers went on to train their colleagues.
 

“The purpose of this course is to strengthen the capability of our national counterparts so they can continue to develop  this concept  and help maintain a high quality of security in Liberia’s prison service,” said Andersson.

Once they started training others, the Liberian trainers requested a visiting official of the SPPS, Agneta Johnson,  to provide them with a uniform that would set them apart from their trainees. The result was the donation of polo shirts made this April.

Since their graduation, the Liberian trainers have themselves trained 241 corrections officers including 31 women working in prisons  around the country.