Prison system in Uganda by Esther Dutki

Prison system in Uganda

A prison system is the organizational arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons and depending on their nature may invoke a corrections system.

A criminal suspect who has been charged with or is likely to be charged with criminal offence may be held on remand in prison if he is denied or unable to meet the conditions of bail prisons may also be used as a tool of political; repression to detain political prisoners , prisoners of conscience and enemies of the state. In times of war or conflict, prisoners of war may also be detained in prisons.

A prison is therefore place where people are physically confined and usually deprived of a range of freedoms (personal). Prisons form part of the criminal justice of a state important is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime.

During colonial times, the principal penal was Luzira prisoners were separated according to categories such as long term convicts, recidivists, women, children, Asians and Europeans.

Cells for specific punishments and death row were separate from regular prisons. Government maintained smaller prisoners were separated according to categories such as long term convicts, recidivists, women, children, Asians and Europeans.

Cells for specific punishments and death row were separate from regular prisons. Government maintained smaller prisons for local convicts in Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro and Ankole terms of less than 6 months were served in smaller jails.

In 1964, the prisons service operated 30 prisons many of which were actually industrial/agricultural intended to rehabilitate prisoners. By mid 1968, the prisons service had a force of about 3000 under the command of the commissioner of prisoners.

During the 1970’s, civilian and military conditions deteriorated and prisoner abuse became common at Makindye and Mutukula military prisons, Langi and Acholi soldiers suspected of disloyalty to the then regime were murdered.

Prison conditions in the 1980’s were dismal. According to Amnesty international, the Obote regime imprisoned civilians without charge for political crimes.

In 1987, the president allowed the international committee of the Red Cross to survey the conditions of Uganda’s civil prisons. Although some reports suggested that prison conditions improved as a result, there had infact been little change.

There are two categories of prisons in Uganda. The central government prisons which are under the authority of the commissioner of prisons under the ministry of internal affairs and the local administrative prisons which are independently run by local government authorities.

In 1997, the Uganda human rights commission inspected twenty four government prisons and twelve local ones and in a report it was said that.

“Due to overcrowding, prison facilities such as toilets were overused, sanitation was poor. Flush toilets had broken down, most wards smelt badly. Inmates complained of lice, bedbugs and fleas. No prison visited had proper bedding. Prisoners slept on a bare floor without blankets. In most prisons including Ndorwa Gulu, Loro, Arua UHRC found many emaciated and sickly prisoners with exception of Luzira, no others had safe drinking water. In Kakiika central government prison (Mbarara) a nurse was found using one hypodermic needle to inject all sick prisoners, a practice which spreads HLV/AIDS, hepatitis among other infections.

Prison regulations prohibit beating of prisoners but in mates reported beating by warders and evidence would be seen on some of their bodies. While the law under the prisons Act Cap 304 allows for a prison officer to use such force against a prisoner as is reasonably necessary in order to make the prisoner obey lawful orders in order in order to maintain discipline in a prison; beating to an extent of leaving one hurt and scared is unjust.

The capacity of Uganda’s prisons is 13,000 people but right now there are 32,000 inmates country wide. Majority of the prisoners in this country are people on remand rather than those sentenced as a punishment. If one is kept on remand for as long a time as one would be kept if one was serving one’s sentence, it makes a mockery of criminal justice.

Julianne Sentambule’s husband was imprisoned for murder which he allegedly committed in September 2007 while on a business trip in Japan. He was arrested in December 2008 when he returned home to clear his name following rumors that he had killed his friend. He was detained for a week at two different police stations before being taken to a magistrate’s court where he was charged with conspiracy to murder.

Under the constitution of the Republic of Uganda, in the case of an offence triable only by the high court, if that person has been remanded in custody for one hundred and eighty days before the case is committed to high court, that person shall be released on bail on such conditions as the court considers reasonable.[1] Two years since he was arrested, he is still waiting for an opportunity to answer the charges. He has been scheduled on a number of occasions but each time, something comes up like the judge being out of the country or not being able to deal with all the cases in the time allocated.

Julianne is frustrated. Her husband’s case is one of the thousands of remand prisoners who have been denied a timely hearing due to an ineffective legal and judicial system.

In April, the government launched a Programme to ease the backlog where the chief justice said: “there is no doubt the case backlog violates the right of a fair and timely trial especially for the poor and marginalized who spend their hard earned resources on legal support only to be told that their cases cannot be heard”.

When some one is committed to the high court and they miss out on a hearing (like Julianne’s husband), they have to wait for the next convenient session. The trouble is that the convenient session may never come.

Under the constitution of the republic of Uganda, every citizen (accused) has a right to legal representation (state attorney) Uganda’s judicial system needs 250 magistrates (grade. One) to be fully functional of which there are only 105. They in turn are overwhelmed and as a result it is no surprise that the prisoner’s cases are slow. It is much harder for detainees to get bail if they do not have adequate legal representation. If a lawyer has 5 cases and a state attorney has 40, those who can afford a lawyer access swifter justice than those that cannot afford one.

In 1972 when Luzira was built, Uganda’s population was about four million. Today, Ugandans are over 30 million and very little has been done to expand or remodel the prison. A facility that was built to hold 600 in mates holds more than 6 times the number. Luzira which holds over 5% of Uganda’s prisoner’s is the only one with any kind of medical facilities which sometimes do not have the resources to treat sick people.

Dr. Michael Kyoma (Luzira) says “high walls at Luzira do not only keep prisoners in but also infectious diseases like tuberculosis. Designing prisons was about restricting points of escape and not ventilation for others”.

Uganda prison’s service officials estimate the rate of tuberculosis infection at about 20%. This is attributed to the lack of ventilation, poor health facilities and other problems in the prison system.

An inmate from Mbarara told his story of how he was moved from a prison near his home to one in Jinja and forced to do hard labor even when the wardens knew that he was HIV positive. He collapsed at work and was transferred to Luzira where he will stay until his tuberculosis is no longer considered active but prisoners are often returned to general wards while the disease is still contagious and so diseases continue to spread.

Cases have been heard of where people are convicted and imprisoned out of malice. One lady in prison on The Untold Story tells of how she came from work one day and found her neighbour’s dead body at her doorstep and on reporting to the LC’s and police, she has been on remand in Luzira pending trial for murder.

Issues such as capital punishment continue to hang since people remain convict to die although their sentence has not been carried out for various reasons one of which is a criminal justice system that is not foolproof and the possibility of an innocent person being killed remaining high.

The conditions of living are very poor-as seen earlier from lack of medical facilities, to one meal a day, no beds to sleep on or blankets to cover themselves. Sanitation in our prisons remains poor and for one to be condemned to such a life especially when their trial is still pending does not help much towards reformation of that individual. Rather, this suffering leaves them in many instances worse than before What then can be done?

Not everyone charged should go to court. Punishments can also be in the form of instant fines, cautions and community service which will also go to reduce the numbers of inmates and make their access to justice more efficient.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995

The prisons Act Cap 304

Websites:

Iwpr.net/report-news/Uganda-remand

www.plus news.org

www.progressive realist.org

Books

CIA World Fact Book-library of congress country studies

The New York sun September 4^th 2007

---