Launch of the paralegal pilot project at Juba Central Prison. | Photo: Michael Daniel/Eye Radio.

A national Non-Governmental Organization inaugurated a paralegal training for inmates, investigators, and prison wardens at the Juba Central Prison on Friday.

The program is being initiated by the Road Economic Development Organization which opened its office at the Juba Prison.

The six-month project from June to November 2023 will train 100 beneficiaries to enhance their legal background in court procedures.

This includes inmates, convicts, police investigators, and prison wardens.

REDO’s Executive Director Juma Robert said the project will empower and train the inmate to represent themselves in the courtroom.

Mr. Robert said they are targeting minor cases in this project.

“The whole idea is to have based paralegal who will be helping fellow inmates in the prison to represent themselves in the court, how to talk in the court in a legal way,” he said.

“To start, we are targeting minor cases such as a warrant and, bills these are the case we are going to tackle. For now, we are targeting 100 beneficiaries, including 30 prison services officers and 20 inmates, 5 female officers, and 20 police officers in the Juba police station in Juba.”

According to the UN Development Agency UNDP, the South Sudan Justice System grapples with prolonged and arbitrary detention of accused persons.

UNDP says the increasing number of people seeking justice has placed a strain on the system that already struggles with a weak civil service and limited human and financial resources.

As a result, it says, there is a high number of pre-trial detainees leading to congestion in the prisons.

The new paralegal initiative will help in reducing prison overcrowded with pre-trial.

For his part Blessed Chirimuta. the Deputy Resident Representative in charge of Operations at UNDP South Sudan says he hopes the project creates confidence among inmates.

“We hope this scheme can contribute to the ongoing office to reduce congestion in Juba prison but also create a cadre of confident inmates,” said Chirimuta.

“This scheme is one of the legal aid mechanisms UNDP supports in South Sudan. we also have been providing grand to civil society organizations to provide legal aid services through justice.”

The project is in partnership with UNDP and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.