The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
THIS WEEK: Prisons boss decries remand inmate population
Commissioner General of Prisons Johnson Byabashaija has decried the population of inmates on remand in Ugandan prions as the highest in East Africa. Byabashaija was speaking to judicial officers and prosecutors at a plea bargaining conference in Kampala when he added that Uganda has 52 per cent remand inmate population against the convicts who are 47.1 percent.
According to the prisons boss, Rwanda has 7 % of remands, Tanzania 45 %, Kenya 35%. Prison statistics indicate a total of 55,724 inmates across the country and 3616 of the have been on remand for a period of two years without being tried.
He called on the judicial officers to take up plea bargaining to reduce on the skyrocketing numbers of inmates. Prison congestion has been an issue in the judicial sector and the Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine has spoken out against imprisonment of breastfeeding mothers.
****
