Religious education can reduce prison congestion
Sep 29, 2008
On July 28, the parliamentary committee on defence and internal affairs learnt from the 2008/9 ministerial statement that, “maintenance in custody of a daily average of 34,275 prisoners (in terms of provision of food, clothes, medicine, utilities) is sh15.24b.†Surprisingly, the Government has p
By David Mwesigye
On July 28, the parliamentary committee on defence and internal affairs learnt from the 2008/9 ministerial statement that, “maintenance in custody of a daily average of 34,275 prisoners (in terms of provision of food, clothes, medicine, utilities) is sh15.24b.†Surprisingly, the Government has provided only sh7b, meaning that these citizens are faced with starvation or malnutrition.
Prison overcrowding is a major problem for most countries, especially in Africa, with negative consequences. For example, hygiene and sanitation begin to deteriorate, which means people are more susceptible to diseases and illnesses, which spread quickly. Overcrowded prisons are harder to control. Prisoners are locked up for longer periods of time and programmes are cut back. Idle prisoners, packed together in too little space, become angry and tense. This tension can result into violent conflict between inmates and between staff and inmates.
Other countries say trying to solve overcrowding by building new prisons is a costly strategy. Prisons are expensive to build and to run. Building prisons takes money away from social programmes such as education and health care. Unfortunately, prisons do little to change people toward good. Instead, the despair and degradation during imprisonment lead to more propensity to commit crime.
Prisons are getting more crowded because the population is growing, while prisons remain the same in number and size. Secondly, the crime rate is either rising or it is perceived to be rising. The latter reason explains why governments are adopting new policies that send more people to prison for a long period of time. Overcrowding in prison contributes to reduced staff morale, security and control difficulties, increased health and wellbeing problems for staff and inmates, increased levels of conflict and violence, and failure of rehabilitation resulting in increased re-offending.
While building or expanding prison capacity can reduce overcrowding, there are things than can be done to improve conditions in overcrowded prisons.
The non-construction solution to overcrowding is deceptively simple: send only as many people into prison as are released from prison. Countries have taken three approaches to do this.
First, keep cases out of the criminal justice system that should not be there. Criminal courts should focus on significant and serious crime, not behaviour that is only a nuisance.
Secondly, create and implement alternatives to pre-trial detention and to prison sentences so that prisons are reserved for serious offenders.
Thirdly, reduce the length of prison sentences imposed on offenders when they are sent to prison. This can be done by having judges impose lower sentences or by having the parole authority release people earlier.
While society must be protected from criminals, there are better ways of treating prisoners and it does not have to cost more money. One of the most remarkable examples of modern day prison reform is the Association for Protection and Assistance to the Convicted in Brazil (APAC), where increasing numbers of prisoners are being allowed to serve their time in an environment built on personal responsibility and spiritual growth.
The Centre for Justice and Reconciliation at Prison Fellowship International recently released Ten Keys to Improving Conditions in Overcrowded Prisons. Among these is the reduction of idleness. Inmate idleness can be reduced by increasing opportunities for exercise, cultural and faith-based activities and work. In the US, with 650,000 ex-inmates returning to neighbourhoods each year, prison officials are increasingly turning to the faith community as partners because religious belief positively influences offender rehabilitation. Religious volunteers help offenders develop a moral compass that enables them to navigate the challenges of prison life and reentry. In Brazil, less than 10% of offenders leaving the APAC programme return to criminal patterns of behaviour. This is not because they have been punished, re-educated, or rehabilitated. It is because they have found new life in Jesus Christ. In Uganda, prison programmes should cover discussion of faith and morality with faith-based groups as partners. Skills training and education alone cannot produce the changed heart that leads to lasting transformation in an offender’s life. Programmes devoid of religion make inmates worse criminals. These programmes cannot break the power of evil, which is the root of crime, in offenders’ lives, nor can they effectively shift offenders’ focus from their own needs and desires to the people around them.
Every prison should offer inmates faith-based programming for life skills, drug treatment, parenting, anger management and re-entry planning. While facilities should offer secular alternatives for those who prefer to avoid religious association, the option of faith-based curriculum should be present. Prison officials should partner with the religious community and create opportunities for this community to become involved in prison services. If inmates are to live healthy, productive, law-abiding lives when they return to their neighbourhoods, we must equip them with moral standards to live by, a worldview that explains why they should do so, and the power to make these choices possible.
The writer is the executive director of Prison Fellowship Uganda
On July 28, the parliamentary committee on defence and internal affairs learnt from the 2008/9 ministerial statement that, “maintenance in custody of a daily average of 34,275 prisoners (in terms of provision of food, clothes, medicine, utilities) is sh15.24b.†Surprisingly, the Government has provided only sh7b, meaning that these citizens are faced with starvation or malnutrition.
Prison overcrowding is a major problem for most countries, especially in Africa, with negative consequences. For example, hygiene and sanitation begin to deteriorate, which means people are more susceptible to diseases and illnesses, which spread quickly. Overcrowded prisons are harder to control. Prisoners are locked up for longer periods of time and programmes are cut back. Idle prisoners, packed together in too little space, become angry and tense. This tension can result into violent conflict between inmates and between staff and inmates.
Other countries say trying to solve overcrowding by building new prisons is a costly strategy. Prisons are expensive to build and to run. Building prisons takes money away from social programmes such as education and health care. Unfortunately, prisons do little to change people toward good. Instead, the despair and degradation during imprisonment lead to more propensity to commit crime.
Prisons are getting more crowded because the population is growing, while prisons remain the same in number and size. Secondly, the crime rate is either rising or it is perceived to be rising. The latter reason explains why governments are adopting new policies that send more people to prison for a long period of time. Overcrowding in prison contributes to reduced staff morale, security and control difficulties, increased health and wellbeing problems for staff and inmates, increased levels of conflict and violence, and failure of rehabilitation resulting in increased re-offending.
While building or expanding prison capacity can reduce overcrowding, there are things than can be done to improve conditions in overcrowded prisons.
The non-construction solution to overcrowding is deceptively simple: send only as many people into prison as are released from prison. Countries have taken three approaches to do this.
First, keep cases out of the criminal justice system that should not be there. Criminal courts should focus on significant and serious crime, not behaviour that is only a nuisance.
Secondly, create and implement alternatives to pre-trial detention and to prison sentences so that prisons are reserved for serious offenders.
Thirdly, reduce the length of prison sentences imposed on offenders when they are sent to prison. This can be done by having judges impose lower sentences or by having the parole authority release people earlier.
While society must be protected from criminals, there are better ways of treating prisoners and it does not have to cost more money. One of the most remarkable examples of modern day prison reform is the Association for Protection and Assistance to the Convicted in Brazil (APAC), where increasing numbers of prisoners are being allowed to serve their time in an environment built on personal responsibility and spiritual growth.
The Centre for Justice and Reconciliation at Prison Fellowship International recently released Ten Keys to Improving Conditions in Overcrowded Prisons. Among these is the reduction of idleness. Inmate idleness can be reduced by increasing opportunities for exercise, cultural and faith-based activities and work. In the US, with 650,000 ex-inmates returning to neighbourhoods each year, prison officials are increasingly turning to the faith community as partners because religious belief positively influences offender rehabilitation. Religious volunteers help offenders develop a moral compass that enables them to navigate the challenges of prison life and reentry. In Brazil, less than 10% of offenders leaving the APAC programme return to criminal patterns of behaviour. This is not because they have been punished, re-educated, or rehabilitated. It is because they have found new life in Jesus Christ. In Uganda, prison programmes should cover discussion of faith and morality with faith-based groups as partners. Skills training and education alone cannot produce the changed heart that leads to lasting transformation in an offender’s life. Programmes devoid of religion make inmates worse criminals. These programmes cannot break the power of evil, which is the root of crime, in offenders’ lives, nor can they effectively shift offenders’ focus from their own needs and desires to the people around them.
Every prison should offer inmates faith-based programming for life skills, drug treatment, parenting, anger management and re-entry planning. While facilities should offer secular alternatives for those who prefer to avoid religious association, the option of faith-based curriculum should be present. Prison officials should partner with the religious community and create opportunities for this community to become involved in prison services. If inmates are to live healthy, productive, law-abiding lives when they return to their neighbourhoods, we must equip them with moral standards to live by, a worldview that explains why they should do so, and the power to make these choices possible.
The writer is the executive director of Prison Fellowship Uganda