By Olimatou Coker
An inmate at Mile 2 Central Prison has issued a direct challenge to government formally adopt the Insight Training Centre as an official rehabilitation facility for prisoners.
Abubacarr Darboe made the demand Tuesday during the inauguration of a new six-classroom block and the graduation of inmates from a six-month vocational programme at Mile 2. The event underscored Security Sector Reform efforts to replace punishment with skills, rehabilitation, and reintegration.
Speaking for his fellow inmates, Darboe said “On behalf of my colleagues, I appeal to the government to incorporate the Insight Training Centre as an official rehabilitation facility for prisoners. Make it law. Make it permanent.”
He pushed further, calling for the programme to be tied to the new Criminal Procedure Act and parole provisions. “Link this training to parole. Link it to the Presidential Pardon Programme, especially for first-time offenders. That is how you cut reoffending. That is how you prove reform is real.”
Darboe credited the Barrow administration for backing SSR, but said words must become structure. He thanked the Ministry of Interior and Gambia Prison Services for enabling the training, then turned the focus to results.
“The Insight instructors did not treat us like criminals. They treated us like men. They gave us respect, dignity, and skills. That was therapy. That was rehabilitation,” Darboe said. “Do not let this end as a pilot project. Institutionalise it.”
He told fellow graduates to weaponise their certificates. “This paper is not decoration. It is a tool. Use it. Go back to your communities and prove that prison can reform, not just punish. We will be the evidence.”
Darboe thanked development partners — MRC Holland Foundation for funding the classroom block, TIKA, the Gambia Children’s First, the RISE Project through MoHERST, and NAQAA — but said the burden now shifts to government.
He closed with a message to President Barrow: “Your compassion opened this door. Your policy can lock it in. Make Insight Training an official pillar of our correctional system.”
The new six-classroom facility will expand training, but Darboe’s demand is clear: bricks are not enough. Without official status, without linkage to parole and pardons, rehabilitation remains a favour. It must become a right.
