When Poverty Becomes a Prison Sentence

By: Seringe S.T. Touray

There are young Gambians in Mile II today for drug offences, including people convicted over relatively small quantities of drugs. Some are serving prison terms imposed directly by the courts. Others may be there because they could not afford the fines that would have kept them out of prison.

For those in the second category, poverty has effectively become part of their punishment. A person with money can pay the fine and avoid the alternative prison term. A poor person who cannot raise the same amount loses his freedom.

If that is what keeps someone behind bars, then the justice system has failed to deliver equal punishment.

Two real cases show just how wide that gap can become.

In March 2024, Amadou Sey was convicted at the Brikama Magistrates’ Court after being caught with 4.069 grams of cannabis. He pleaded guilty, was a first-time offender and was described by the court as young and remorseful. He was fined D100,000 or two years in prison.

Sey could not pay the D100,000. He was taken to Mile II.

Months later, Alieu Njie was arrested at Banjul International Airport with 47,078 MDMA tablets weighing 22.9 kilograms. He pleaded guilty to possession and dealing in prohibited drugs. In February 2025, the Brikama Magistrates’ Court fined him a total of D500,000, with six years in prison if he failed to pay.

The contrast is hard to ignore. Sey had just over four grams of cannabis and went to Mile II because he could not raise D100,000. Njie was caught with nearly 23 kilograms of ecstasy — 47,078 pills — yet the six years attached to his sentence applied only if he could not pay D500,000.

Drug offences must have consequences. But a person’s ability to pay should not determine whether those consequences mean losing years of his freedom.

If there are young people sitting in Mile II today who would be outside those walls if they or their families had enough money, then their poverty is helping to determine their punishment.

The law may put the same fine before rich and poor, but D100,000 does not punish them equally. For one person, it may mean money lost. For another, it can mean two years of his life.

A justice system cannot meaningfully claim to treat rich and poor equally when money can mean the difference between going home and going to Mile II.