EDITOR—On December 13, 2009 The New Vision published a story that women inmates at Luzira Prison had asked to be granted the right to have sex with their husbands within the prison. This, they argued, would help in the rehabilitation of prisoners.

Although I agree that prisoners should enjoy their rights, I don’t think allowing prisoners to have sex with their spouses would help in their rehabilitation. People agitating for sex in prison should be realistic. Sex cannot be carried out in circumstances such as a prison where people are in emotional pain. Actually, allowing sex could lead to having unwanted pregnancies, especially in circumstances where the prisoner is say, condemned or serving a long sentence. The struggle against HIV/AIDS would be defeated if sex was allowed within the prison walls, because when one is imprisoned his or her spouse might find other sex partners who could be HIV-positive, so prisoners would be prone to catching HIV thus enhancing the spread of disease. Some prisoners are serving terms for sexual offences, so allowing them to have sex might encourage them to continue committing the same crimes behind bars.

People in prison are emotionally upset and cannot make sober decisions especially when it comes to sex. Some people will take advantage of them, especially of female prisoners. Because many prisoners are needy, they are very vulnerable and some people will promise to help them out of prison or give them material assistance in return for sex.

Government should instead encourage other correctional methods like promoting skills training in prison, offering inmates psycho-social support and preparing them before they are released so they can be useful to themselves and the community after prison. I also support the Government in strengthening the judicial system and reducing the number of people on remand because 56% of the prison population are people on remand. That represents a big number.

Francis Ssuubi
Executive Coordinator
Wells of Hope
Kampala