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Let’s be serious on prisons congestion
2006-09-04 09:08:37
By Editor
Last week, whilst on a working tour in Manyara Region, the Minister for Home Affairs, John Chiligati, called upon the regional defence and security committees to regularly visit correctional penal institutions to assess their conditions and resolve emerging problems.
The minister was reacting to the region’s report on defence and security, presented to him by the regional administrative secretary on the congestion of remand prisons by inmates accused of very minor offences.
The minister’s concern is nothing new. A few months back, President Jakaya Kikwete was clearly disturbed after he visited prisons based in Dar es Salaam.
After the visit, the President directed the concerned ministry, in collaboration with the Prisons Department to compile a list of all inmates all over the country whose cases were pending in courts and state the reasons for the delay of court proceedings as well as for the denial of bail.
The idea was no doubt to try to solve these problems with the aim of decongesting the penal institutions.
What worries us is that nothing so far seems to be materializing apart from merely describing the appalling situation in the prisons.
Just two weeks ago, a report by Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance, Justice Robert Kisanga revealed a sad story in our prisons and made several recommendations to the authorities.
The report shows besides congestion, minors are not separated from adults, in the prisons.
That was yet another voice of concern on the conditions in our prisons. We tend to forget that even though inmates could be criminals, they are still human beings who have basic rights.
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