Director General at the National Prisons Service General Henry Kuany Agar. (Lou Nelson/Eye Radio).

The Director General at the National Prisons Service on Monday decried underfunding of the institution saying much of its annual budget goes to feeding the inmates across the country.

According to General Henry Kuany Aguar, the Prisons Service has been allocated over 18 billion pounds in the fiscal budget year 2023/2024.

He however said the prisoners consume a budget of 17 billion pounds, leaving the institution with only 1.1 billion pounds for salaries and wages of the staff.

Kuany’s complaint was read out by the spokesperson of the National Prisons Service Major General Rodento Tangun upon the visit of Interior Minister Angelina Teny to the institution’s headquarters in Juba.

Mr. Kuany also called for equal treatment of the Prisons Service saying it’s an important component of criminal justice in the country.

“Prisons Service should be equally treated for support and resources allocation, like other rule of law components. All the three components are not only interdependent but are indispensable for three criminal justice chain to function effectively,” he said in the statement.

“More importantly, to enable us smooth induction of the forces into service, we need financial, material and technical support which seems to be not forth coming from the international partners.”

Meanwhile, Minister Angelina Teny said, the purpose of her visit is to streamline the Ministry of Interior to address the challenges facing the institution and deepen cooperation between the Police and the Prisons departments.

“There is a conception in the prison here that the police have more resources, that the police are considered as priority and that they have more resources, and they are addressing their challenges, but they have same challenges as you.”

“We want to streamline this ministry to identify ourselves as one body. We have to know our problems and concerns together and deepen our cooperation, between the police and the prison service, between prison service and civil defense and the other two institutions, we will try to streamline and then we see we cooperate and coordinate together.”