How to address congestion in prisons
May 02, 2007
RECENT press reports indicated that many prisons in Uganda are overcrowded and that over 10,000 inmates are ‘rotting’ in various jails without appearing before courts of law. Overcrowding in prisons is a major problem not only in Uganda but in many other African countries like South Africa, Came
By Jamil Mujuzi
RECENT press reports indicated that many prisons in Uganda are overcrowded and that over 10,000 inmates are ‘rotting’ in various jails without appearing before courts of law. Overcrowding in prisons is a major problem not only in Uganda but in many other African countries like South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria and Latin American countries.
The problem of prisoners spending many years on remand without appearing before courts is also not exclusive to Uganda. As the spokesperson for the Uganda Prisons Services observed, rightly, overcrowding in prisons is not something that Ugandans we should be proud of.
It is unfortunate that prisoners spend more years on remand than they would have spent in jail had they been sentenced. This not only violates their rights to human dignity, fair trial and equality before the law, but it also shows how our criminal justice system is failing suspects.
Many of the remand inmates are innocent and therefore never get convicted. They never get compensated for such long detention – despite the appalling hygienic conditions they are subjected to unfairly. We should therefore join the Uganda Prisons Service to call upon the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary to double or triple their efforts and ensure that these suspects are brought to trial as soon as practicable.
Legal aid organisations should also triple their efforts and offer pro bono representation to most of the indigent suspects in our prisons. The police should also ensure that they investigate thoroughly before arrests are carried out as this will reduce the number of innocent people being detained.
Parliament and the judiciary should work together to ensure that bail conditions are made more affordable. Some crimes like idle and disorderly should be scrapped off our statute books.
There are various ways in which we can address the problem of overcrowding of our prisons in cases of those people who have been found guilty. We should fully utilise the measures available in the Prisons Act (2006). These include remissions of some sentences. This would ensure that some sentences, especially those that are a result of petty offences, are shortened, more prisoners released and more space created in prisons.
Prisoners who have served at least two-thirds of their sentences should be released on parole. This will ensure that prisons are decongested and offenders are integrated in society so that they would find it easy to fit in society on completion of their sentences.
The President should regularly use his prerogative of mercy under Article 121 of the Constitution to pardon some offenders. This could include all female prisoners who are mothers of children below the age of 10, all physically-handicapped prisoners, all offenders below the age of 24 who have committed petty offences, and all aged offenders of 50 years and above. Many of the offenders in categories above, especially the aged, are less likely to commit offend again.
Courts should also explore the possibility of imposing suspended sentences. In all the above cases priority should be given to petty offenders or those prisoners serving sentences of less than five years. In situations where judges or magistrates have discretion in sentencing, they should impose lighter sentences so that offenders spend little time in prisons. When the judiciary sends offenders on long sentences, you get more people staying in prisons for long periods hence overcrowding.In S. Africa, for example, the high prison population is a result of increased instances of sentencing offenders to long jail terms of 15 years and above.
The writer is a Ugandan researcher based in South Africa
RECENT press reports indicated that many prisons in Uganda are overcrowded and that over 10,000 inmates are ‘rotting’ in various jails without appearing before courts of law. Overcrowding in prisons is a major problem not only in Uganda but in many other African countries like South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria and Latin American countries.
The problem of prisoners spending many years on remand without appearing before courts is also not exclusive to Uganda. As the spokesperson for the Uganda Prisons Services observed, rightly, overcrowding in prisons is not something that Ugandans we should be proud of.
It is unfortunate that prisoners spend more years on remand than they would have spent in jail had they been sentenced. This not only violates their rights to human dignity, fair trial and equality before the law, but it also shows how our criminal justice system is failing suspects.
Many of the remand inmates are innocent and therefore never get convicted. They never get compensated for such long detention – despite the appalling hygienic conditions they are subjected to unfairly. We should therefore join the Uganda Prisons Service to call upon the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary to double or triple their efforts and ensure that these suspects are brought to trial as soon as practicable.
Legal aid organisations should also triple their efforts and offer pro bono representation to most of the indigent suspects in our prisons. The police should also ensure that they investigate thoroughly before arrests are carried out as this will reduce the number of innocent people being detained.
Parliament and the judiciary should work together to ensure that bail conditions are made more affordable. Some crimes like idle and disorderly should be scrapped off our statute books.
There are various ways in which we can address the problem of overcrowding of our prisons in cases of those people who have been found guilty. We should fully utilise the measures available in the Prisons Act (2006). These include remissions of some sentences. This would ensure that some sentences, especially those that are a result of petty offences, are shortened, more prisoners released and more space created in prisons.
Prisoners who have served at least two-thirds of their sentences should be released on parole. This will ensure that prisons are decongested and offenders are integrated in society so that they would find it easy to fit in society on completion of their sentences.
The President should regularly use his prerogative of mercy under Article 121 of the Constitution to pardon some offenders. This could include all female prisoners who are mothers of children below the age of 10, all physically-handicapped prisoners, all offenders below the age of 24 who have committed petty offences, and all aged offenders of 50 years and above. Many of the offenders in categories above, especially the aged, are less likely to commit offend again.
Courts should also explore the possibility of imposing suspended sentences. In all the above cases priority should be given to petty offenders or those prisoners serving sentences of less than five years. In situations where judges or magistrates have discretion in sentencing, they should impose lighter sentences so that offenders spend little time in prisons. When the judiciary sends offenders on long sentences, you get more people staying in prisons for long periods hence overcrowding.In S. Africa, for example, the high prison population is a result of increased instances of sentencing offenders to long jail terms of 15 years and above.
The writer is a Ugandan researcher based in South Africa