Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS) announced the closure of Bugesera Correctional Facility, with inmates transferred to other correctional facilities across the country. In a statement issued on Monday, October 12, RCS informed families of inmates who were held at the facility that they had been relocated and would now be visited at their respective new locations. ALSO READ: RCS gets over 140 correctional officers The institution said inmates would be provided with telephone lines to contact their families and inform them of the facilities to which they had been transferred. Speaking to The New Times on Monday evening, Chief Superintendent of Prisons (CSP) Hillary Sengabo, RCS Spokesperson, said the facility held 2,777 inmates, a number he described as too small to justify the continued operation as a correctional facility. ALSO READ: Five prisons to relocate from urban areas According to Sengabo the transfers were intended to improve the management of correctional facilities while taking into consideration inmates’ family ties and access to courts handling their cases. “We moved them to ensure proper management of facilities. We relocated inmates according to facilities close to their families and the courts where their cases are being heard,” Sengabo said. He added that arrangements would be made to enable inmates to communicate with their families about their new locations. RCS will now operate 12 correctional facilities across the country, including those for male, female, mixed and juvenile inmates. The service has eight male correctional facilities located different districts including in Rwamagana, Nyanza, Huye, Rusizi, Rubavu, Muhanga and Gicumbi. It also operates two facilities for female inmates in Ngoma and Nyamagabe districts as well as mixed facilities in Nyarugenge and Musanze districts. Nyagatare district hosts a juvenile correctional facility. RCS urged families whose relatives were detained at Bugesera facility to rely on communication from the inmates regarding their new locations before making arrangements for visits.
