Education behind bars

By Petride Mudoola

Clad in bright yellow and white uniforms, they converge under a towering tree with a blackboard placed against it. Minutes later, their mathematics teacher arrives and the class monitor is tasked with distributing exercise books and pens. A late student also arrives.

“I am sorry I’m late, I was delayed by the security guards, who are supposed to accompany me to this venue,” apologises the 60-year-old student. He is on death row and just like the other students, is an inmate at Luzira Maximum Security Prison in Kampala.

The inmates’ fervour for education brings to mind the adage about life giving humans a second chance to pass in the lives of those who find themselves on the cusp of despair.

This is reflected best in the life of one of the inmates, Ibrahim Mugisha.

Mugisha, a lean 35-year-old from Rwanda, was sent to the gallows by the High Court after he was found guilty of aggravated robbery in 2002.

He had been detained in 1998. Instead of sinking into despair, Mugisha chose to use this time to get an education.

“I was sentenced to death for committing murder. I cried over the long prison sentence, but later found it to be a blessing in disguise. I have ended up attaining formal education that can brighten my future,” Mugisha narrates.

“When I was presented in the high court, I presented the education I acquired in prison as one of my mitigating factors. Owing to my outstanding performance and positive response towards rehabilitation programmes initiated by Uganda Prisons Services, the trial judge deemed it fit to overturn my sentence from murder to manslaughter and reduced from life imprisonment to 16 years,” says the convict.

Mugisha’s sentence was reduced, on account of his good conduct while in prison. The inmate, who has spent 14 years in jail, says he was ecstatic about escaping the gallows.

With a wry smile, Mugisha reminisces about his time in the condemned section: “I got the idea of enrolling in the prison educational programmes after a colleague who is on death row for aggravated defilement, convinced me that despite the guilty verdict metted unto me, I should still have hope in life,” he recalls.

“Despite the hurdles I have encountered, I thank God for giving me the courage to commit myself to studies behind bars, yet some of my classmates gave up due to stress,” adds Mugisha.

With a firm conviction which one would not expect of a person in his circumstances, Mugisha goes on to lecture about the value of education.

“As a convict, I observed that it’s only knowledge acquired through education that can help me reform from a criminal to a responsible citizen. There are things that I did in the past that I would not even think about now because of the education I have acquired,” Mugisha adds.

Findings from a research conducted by the Human Rights Watch, show that the majority of convicts are uneducated, which implies that some of them commit crime out of ignorance.

Mugisha exemplifies these findings. He dropped out of school in Primary Three after his parents failed to raise school fees. Today, thanks to the free education offered in prison, Mugisha is in Senior Six. He intends to use the golden opportunity to better his future.

And things are already looking better for him. In 2006, Mugisha was the best candidate at Luzira Inmates Primary School with Aggregates 12, and in 2010, obtained Aggregate 44 in O’ level, emerging one of the best candidate at Luzira Inmates Secondary School. He now aims at getting above 20 points at A’ level.

Restricted movement

Unlike in a conventional school system where students are free to move and read from anywhere and also have discussion groups, those in prison can only access facilities under the watchful eye of a warder of wardress.

The prison is mandated to protect prisoner, while in custody. Any captive intending to access another unit is allocated a guard to keep a watchful eye on him or her.

In addition, when a student fails to turn up in time, usually they plead with the teacher to extend the lessons by a few minutes to one hour.

Female inmates listen attentively to their Geography teacher during a session inside the Prison premises. PHOTO by Petride Mudoola

The plight of female inmates

Dropping out of school is not unique to conventional schools only as it occurs even in prison.

A breastfeeding inmate who preferred anonymity says she was forced to drop out of school to attend to her baby since she had no one to leave her with.

“I could not concentrate in class because my baby was crying all the time, I would come out to breastfeed, but whenever I left her outside assuming she was okay, she would follow me screaming.”

The mother, who is serving a 25-year jail term on charges of murder, hopes to pursue her education when her daughter turns one year. According to prison regulations, when the baby comes of age, it will be referred to Family of Africa, the Luzira-based home that accommodates children detained alongside their mothers.

Currently, Luzira Women’s Prison accommodates 36 children detained alongside their mothers.

According to Prisons authorities, the children in prison are not criminals. They are in jail because they were either born there or because their mothers chose to serve sentences with them. Such a situation arises when the child is neglected by the female inmate’s relatives or when there is no one to take care of them back home.

Enrollment trends in prison

Luzira inmates’ school enrollment stands at 1,053 students of which 986 are men and 67 are women. Out of the 986 male enrollments, 613 are in primary school, 316 in secondary and 51 are currently pursuing a certificate course in Small Business Enterprises Management with Makerere University Business School (MUBS).

Of these, three male inmates from Luzira Upper Prison are pursuing a bachelor of laws correspondence degree with the University of London, and another three are pursuing a diploma in law at the same institute.

Luzira women inmates’ enrollment in school stands at 67 of which 17 are in primary section. The remaining 49 are in secondary and one inmate is pursuing a correspondence diploma in law with the University of London.

Reports from prisons authorities show an improvement in the lives of inmates who have studied while serving their sentence.

Not only have they turned out to be better people in society, but also some of them come back to give motivational talks to those still in prison.

The prisons authorities encourage the inmates to use the opportunity to study so that when they live, they can lead better and more meaninful life.

A prisons officer said that some of the inmates score highly in national exams and are admitted to different institutions on government scholarship.

Identifying teachers within

In the past, teaching was done by fellow inmates recruited by the prisons authorities. But now, some inmates who have professional backgrounds like teaching and accounting are recruited to teach.

“We would identify these and appoint them as teachers. However, they are not paid a salary, but are remunerated,” said a prison’s official. The total of inmate teachers is now 56.

Realising the importance of prison education, the Ministry of Education and Sports has, since last year, posted professional teachers to the prison. Already the female section has 10 professional teachers attached to it. Overall, the prisons schools have 18 teachers appointed by the education ministry.

Perseverance amidst challenges

For Anatoli Biryomumaisho, the head teacher of Luzira inmates’ school, all is not gloom despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges.

“We have no laboratories to carry out experiments and the school is grossly understaffed, which sometimes forces us to use some inmates as teachers. Despite all this, the performance of our students has improved recently as evidenced by the graduation of 51 of our students from MUBS,” said Biryomumaisho.

With no basic science equipment, teaching sciences in prisons is one of the biggest hurdles. However the authorities say they are in the process of putting up laboratory to handle this issue. Once the laboratory is complete this will make inmates more competitive in science subjects as well.