Human rights boss decries congestion in prisons

By Sylvia Katushabe

The chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Ms Mariam Wangadya, has decried congestion in prisons. Speaking at a press conference in Kampala yesterday, Ms Wangadya said her commission has been visiting different prisons across the country and found that prisoners find it difficult to sleep because of the congested facilities.

“When I went to Jinja last week, I learnt that the capacity of the male pris- on is 300 prisoners but as at the time I left on Friday, they had over 2,600 prisoners. I went to the wards where they stay, I asked them how they turn when one side is tired, they told me you have to first get up and then turn,” Ms Wangadya said.

Ms Wangadya’s comments come days to the commemoration of the Human Rights Day which is slated for December 10. Ms Wangadya called for the fasttracking of the hearing of court cases so that the innocent are released.

She urged the government to construct more detention facilities to accommodate inmates.

“Remember, most of our prisons were built in the colonial era when the population was hardly 15 million people. Today, we are at least three times that population and everyday people commit crimes, and are remanded,” Ms Wangadya said.

This comes barely three days after the Government of Uganda-Development Partners Access to Justice report revealed that the prison population had doubled from 35,564 prisoners in inancial year 2013/2014 to 73,722 prisoners in 2022/2023.

“This may be addressed partly through expanding carrying capacity and crime prevention measures, in ad- dition to focusing on alternative modes of punishment away from the traditional incarceration. The increasing prisoners’ population puts pressure on housing, sanitation, medicare, feeding, uniforms, staff numbers and delivery of prisoners to courts,” the report reads in part.

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