Prisons officers, inmates worry over missing case files

Prison officers and inmates at Arua government prisons have expressed worry over missing case files saying it has led to delayed justice and congestion at the prisons.

Speaking to the team from judiciary led by the principal judge Yorokamu Bamwine, the districts' regional prisons commander, Allan Mushabe said that the prison is congested with suspects whose files cannot be traced.

"Whenever we present these suspects to the courts for trial, we are always told that their police files are missing. This leaves us with no option but to remand them further in the already congested prisons," he said.

During the launch of the plea bargaining session Monday at the Uganda government prisons in Arua,  the inmates' supervisor who is a former priest currently on defilement charges, Santos Wapokira, presented a petition to the judiciary.

In their petition, the prisoners also expressed worry over missing case files, delayed trial and congestion.

"There are rampant cases of missing files which has made some of us to stay for long on remand without being heard," he said.

He said that the prisons which have the capacity to accommodate only 250 people now accommodates over 900 inmates, some of which are inmates on ministerial orders, debtors, the elderly, petty offenders, juveniles and the mentally deranged.

Wapokira pointed out that the inmates on ministerial order who have stayed on remand for over seven years and the elderly of whom one is 104 years have been on remand for six months on the allegations of defiling a six year old girl, should be given a priority and their cases handled expeditiously in order to decongest the prisons.

"We pray that before debtors are brought to prisons, they should first be given time to effect payment. This will help to decongest our prisons," he said.

This irked the judge who ordered the prison officers and the Arua High Court resident judge to first try the elderly and either convict them if guilty or release them if innocent.

"The elderly should be given special treatment. Let prosecution present evidence that he (Muhammed Olegwa, the 104 year old man) defiled the young girl," Bamwine said while doubting the potency of the old man.

He ordered courts, both the magistrates and the high court to dismiss cases against the inmates whose files are missing or alternatively, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mike Chibita, to create duplicate files for trial.

Bamwine directed the prisons officers to transfer the six mentally sick inmates to Butabika mental hospital in order to avoid endangering the lives of other inmates.

He told those on ministerial orders to apply to the officers in charge of the prisons to have their files transferred to courts for trial.

However, Chibita denied knowledge of the missing files and said that he has not received any complaints.

"I will not tolerate issues of missing files in my office and I have not received any complaint so far," he said.

He called upon the prisoners not to wait for the lengthy trial and instead embrace plea bargain if they feel or know that they are guilty.

A plea bargain is a legal negotiation where a suspect pleads guilty for a lenient sentence. So far it has been launched in twelve high courts, across the country.