Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS) has announced the resumption of visits to prisoners, nearly two years after they were suspended after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The development was announced by the service on Tuesday February 15, following the recent gains made in the country in as regarding fighting Covid-19. The suspension of visits in prisons was made in March 2020 a few days after the first case was confirmed in Rwanda, a decision was made to contain the contagion in prison facilities. In an interview with The New Times, Senior Superintendent of Prisons (SSP) Pelly Uwera Gakwaya, the RCS Spokesperson said that they resumed so that the inmates can get the time with their families and friends after a long time. “Everywhere in the country, life is getting back to normal and it’s has been almost two years since the suspension so this is the right time for them to have visiting days back,” she said. According to her there has been some time since the last case was recorded in any of the prisons in the country for both staff and inmates. She added that this is also part of RCS’s responsibilities to let prisoners catch up with their families and other people who are allowed to visit them officially. According to the communique from the service, the visits will begin in a week’s time and among the requirements is for both the prison and their guest to be vaccinated against Covid-19. “People have to request for visits two days before the scheduled via prison Email or telephone number every Wednesday during the working hours,” read the guidelines. Visitors are allowed every week on Friday starting from 8 AM to 4 PM and only one person is allowed on visiting day per inmate. Also, visitors will be required to present negative tests for Covid. As per the new guidelines, visitors are not allowed to give cash to prisoners. They can only give them money through prisons’ MoMo Pay numbers and during the visit, the prisoner and their guests will maintain a two-metre distance. Gakwaya urged all the visitors to follow the guidelines in order to prevent the spread of covid-19 since things have started to be normal again. Adding that as soon as Covid-19 ends things will get back fully to normal where for instance she mentioned that the inmates will be allowed to have more than one visitor per day among others.
