Uganda prisons officials begin study tour

A delegation of nine senior officials from Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) is in the country for a week-long study tour. In an interview with The New Times, yesterday, James Mwanje, the Deputy Commissioner General of UPS said that they came to learn best Prison Management practices from their Rwandan counterparts. The initial meeting with officials from Rwanda Correctional Service was held yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mwanje said that during their stay in Rwanda, the group will visit the construction of the ‘open prisons’ which has helped decongest prison facilities. “Overcrowding remains a problem back home...we want to learn from here because RCS was once facing the same challenge but are on the right path of addressing it,” Mwanje said. He added that they also came to learn how biogas plants are manufactured in prisons and to make various site visits to areas where inmates engage in productive activities like those under TIG programme. “UPS has had a number of tremendous improvements; for example currently we feed inmates three meals a day something which was previously impossible,” Mwanje said. He said that UPS nowadays engage in agricultural activities whereby it currently contributes 30 percent of food requirement by prisoners and the central government tops up the remaining 70 percent of the food required. Mwanje also noted that UPS has also improved in various areas saying that medical service being offered to the inmates has gradually improved. Speaking to The New Times shortly after the meeting, Mary Gahonzire, the Deputy Commissioner General of RCS said that the visit is part of an agreement signed by the two institutions in Kampala, last year. “Their visit is also in line with the East African Community framework of information sharing among prison institutions in the region and this is very important because it will enable prisons bodies to improve the kind of services we offer,” Gahonzire said. stevenson.mugisha@newtimes.co.rw

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Uganda prisons officials begin study tour