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Prisons: Horror that benefits some people
2005-09-22 08:18:10
By Keregero Keregero
Overcrowding in prisons has necessitated the introduction of community service in an effort to reduce the population in prisons. Whilst this looks like a good solution, it also has its share of problems.
Staff writer Keregero Keregero discusses the various problems associated with the introduction of community service as an option for a jail term and how they can be solved
The number of prisoners and inmates in prisons in our country is increasing each passing day, with most of the prisons registering over and above the required number.
According to the Budget Speech by the Minister for Home Affairs Ramadhan Omar Mapuri, presented in Dodoma during the budget Parliament session for the year 2004/2005 available prisons’ facilities were designed to hold only 22,699 prisoners.
But the actual prisons population during the period was estimated at more than 47,105 indicating that the population was over 107.72 per cent beyond the capacity of the facilities of the prisons, apparently, twice the requisite capacity.
In short, prisons’ expansion efforts being made by the government, though appreciated, have not matched with the prodigious increase of the inmates.
In addition to the large increase in the number of prisoners, there has also been attendant problems of accommodation, poor nutrition, medical facilities, prevalence of deadly diseases such as HIV/Aids, cholera, dysentery, malaria and other unwholesome diseases resulting from congestion.
There are reports that some cruel and dehumanising punishments are inflicted on prisoners.
There are also reports that some of the prisoners have had time to protest against such mal-treatment in the form of beatings and other forms of humiliation by going on hunger strike.
Nevertheless, they had to suffer injuries and in some cases, physical disabilities.
Though problems relating to the prisoners have often been denied by the prison department, the acute shortage of space in prisons which has made it literally difficult to separate prisoners, except for the separation of women and those facing death sentences, is manifestly real and a proverbially growing phenomenon that ought to be tackled. Some of the young persons are held together with adult prisoners.
As a matter of fact conditions in our prisons have remained so harsh in terms of congestion and access to social amenities. That has had to threaten the lives and health of the inmates. Limited budget allocations that call for enhancement, might have been the cause of that unwholesome trend.
Amply aware of the impact of this adverse situation, the Union government has had to address the problem of overcrowding in prisons by releasing certain categories of prisoners from prison from time to time.
That has been done through parole mechanism under the provisions of the Parole Boards Act of 1994 and the invocation of presidential prerogatives.
But the problem has persisted, warranting the adoption of another measure altogether, that of assigning duties of Community service to criminal convicts in the place of custodial sentences under the Community Service Act.
And, this forms the essence of the thematic expression behind this article.
The Community Service Act which is already in force is essentially intended to provide an alternative to custodial sentences of up to three year terms.
Under the spirit of this law, an accused person who has been sentenced by the Court for a term not exceeding three years ought not to go to prison.
Instead, the law provides that such persons should be left to live at their respective homes but mandatorily render free community services for the period in question.
As already said above, the law is intended to address the problem of congestion in the prisons in terms of regulating and controlling the otherwise ever-surging numbers of prisoners and inmates.
It is envisaged that under the present programme the government will also cut down some spending. The programme is scheduled to take place in six pilot areas, starting in Dar es Salaam City from where it will be extended to cover other regions including Mwanza and Tanga, as a pilot survey, before it is implemented country wide.
In Dar es Salaam alone, six Community Service Programme applications have already been lodged in Court.
We do hail the move, especially the spirit behind the legislation, which spells for good omen.
For all purposes and intent, it is a prisoner friendly legislation, much as the Alternative Dispute Resolution programme is to disputant civil litigants.
But, whereas the implementation of this programme may be seen as a possible panacea for the prisons’ congestion problem, it raises a range of issues that need to be tackled.
The change sought ought to be a qualitative change of the question of law.
Thus implementation of the programme and peaceful co-existence and application of the Act in question inevitably entails an amendment of other parent pieces of legislation, including the Prisons Act, Criminal Procedure Act and others.
There is also the problem of procedure and regulations governing the filing of the applications and subsequent implementation of the orders of the trial Court.
The existing procedures call for amendment or at least improval to accommodate the change in force. But there is more than that.
No known system has ever been evolved to govern, regulate, guarantee and control the mandatory procurement, availability, presence and participation of the ’’home’’ based prisoners in rendering free Community services, considering the geographical configuration of Dar es Salaam City and the increased number of prisoners who will be living in sporadic places within the sizeable City.
That no doubt would pave way for the problem of the increased number of supervising officers to reasonably match in terms of control and supervision, with the increased number of the ’’home’’ prisoners in Dar es Salaam.
As it, is the arrangement is likely to involve large administrative personnel if it were to effectively realize the intended objective but that, in turn, could also result in extended bureaucracy, another major constraint likely to water down the efficacy of the programme.
But good intentions notwithstanding, the programme may turn into a conduit pipe for corruption.
The arrangement must also put in place the procedure to be followed by prisoners applying for Community Services programme.
This is because many a people do not know, infact, are not even aware of the existence of the present programme.
For example, what procedure has been used to come up with the six applications in hand while there could be hundreds of prisoners serving sentences of up to three years but their applications have not been filed in Court.
It would be wrong to assume that such prisoners do not prefer the new programme because the latter is a relief for them.
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