PRISONS | INMATES | JUSTICE 

KAMPALA - Prison conditions in Uganda, Kenya and the Gambia fall short of international standards on rights protection for inmates, a new report says.

The independent report was commissioned by Justice Defenders, a registered UK charity and U.S. nonprofit working in prison communities across Africa to facilitate legal education and training.

It is based on interviews with former inmates, prisons officers, governors and judicial officers across Kenya, Uganda, and Gambia last year.

The author, Diana Good, an international litigation lawyer and part-time judge in criminal courts, also interviewed lawyers and academics to come up with the findings.

According to the report, a wide gap exists in delivery of justice, with many prisoners lacking access to legal advice while many are in detention without trial.

Last week, Parliament’s Human Rights Committee members visited Kitalya Maximum Security Prison in Wakiso district to probe alleged rights violations of prisoners.

The committee’s visit to Kitalya followed a directive from the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, arising out of a petition from Mityana Municipality MP, Francis Zaake about alleged abuse of political prisoners at the detention facility.

The report calls for prison reform to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of individuals and families that bear the brunt of suffering when their loved ones are incarcerated.

“The vast majority of prisoners are young, married, and those on whom families rely for income. Imprisonment creates a gap in livelihood conditions of families and individuals,” the report says.

It makes a case for early release of detainees who can be reintegrated in society with skills that will make them productive and less likely to return to crime.

Currently in Uganda, the number of prisoners held on remand pending trial is 54% and some of them wait for years when it should be much less, the report says.

Frank Baine, the spokesperson of the Uganda Prisons Service says in the report: “Imprisonment results in a terrible reversal of fortunes for the whole family: families are broken up, some women are married off and if it’s the woman who is in prison, her husband remarries, they lose property while they are away, children drop out of education, people lose contact with their children. Far too many people are detained in prison for far longer than they should be.”

According to Baine, when prisoners are educated, 99% of them do not re-offend but if they have no access to learning, the recidivism rate is 80%.

The report titled “The Power of Access to Justice” calls for a holistic approach that involves inmates and prison officers training and providing legal advice in the clinics.

One of such models touted for achieving access to justice involves the use of paralegals, pro bono lawyers, and other non-state actors to provide legal aid to vulnerable groups, educate others about their rights, resolve legal problems and challenges.

Globally, the new report faults the criminal justice system for failing to guarantee a fair trial and access to legal advice for detainees, with suspects detained for a long time pending trial.

“Pre-trial detainees are imprisoned without having been convicted of a crime. In low-income countries, 50% of prisoners are detained pending trial; it often takes years before they stand trial in court even when they’ve been charged with a minor offence. 

This is an infringement of the fundamental human right of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty,” the report says.

The new report shows that countries have fallen short of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 16.3) to “Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all.”

“Majority of the world’s population does not experience justice because they don’t know where to seek it. Justice is too slow or expensive or unfair. Injustice and inequality go hand in hand. Without justice, there can be no peace. And there can be no eradication of poverty,” it reads.