Multi-Country-Analysis
Key Problems
and Key Recommendations
regarding
2.2
Physical Space and 2.1 Alternatives,
using
assessments of six countries:
Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Zambia, and Zimbabwe,
1. SIX COUNTRY-ASSESSMENTS (excerpts):
Mali Assessment
Physical space. Overcrowding is a major problem in the central prison in Bamako. There are often nine hundred or more detainees in a prison built for four hundred. This is similar to other jails and correction.
Alternatives. There are alternative punishments rather than incarceration, including community service and financial payment.
Senegal Assessment
Physical space. We have had 5887 prisoners in jails built for 2972 people. This overcrowding is partly due to the weakness of the judicial system and lack of money. We may have ten or dozen people crowded in 10 square meters (10m²). There is one mat for five , one bed for 17, one bathroom for everybody. Dakar's Central Prison, which had a maximum capacity of 700 persons, held approximately 1,400, while the penal camp in Dakar, which had a capacity of 400, held an estimated 800 detainees. Human rights activists noted that Nioro Prison was severely overcrowded and resembled "a chicken coop" more than a prison.
Ghana Assessment
Physical space. In most cases we may find inmates pressing upon one another like in sheepfolds. Presently Ghana has an approximate prison population of 18,000 living in facilities designed to accommodate 4,000. N’sawam medium security prison, the most important prison of Ghana built in 1956 to accommodate 717 inmates, now has over 4,000 inmates. Thus 55 inmates can share a cell meant for 12. Today this fact contributes to a prevalence of serious and communicable diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, itch and cough.
Alternatives. The Judicial Service has made efforts to mainstream alternate dispute resolution (ADR) procedures in order to decongest the courts and to address judicial inefficiency. Mediators have been trained throughout the country to implement ADR and mediation desks have been established in some district courts. An ADR secretariat was established within the Judicial Service.
Guinea Assessment
Physical space. Overcrowding in the prisons of the country is a real problem, in the prisons of Conakry, Zerekoré, Faranah and Pita. The central prison of Conakry was originally planned to accommodate 240 to 300 inmates, now houses nearly 1,500 people. Most adult prisoners spend 24 hours each day in the cells where there are tuberculosis and other respiratory and skin diseases.
Alternatives. Many citizens wary of judicial corruption preferred to rely on traditional systems of justice at the village or urban neighborhood level.
Zambia Assessment
Physical space. Inmates are kept in cells where there is no sleeping space. Chingola state prison has never been extended since it was built in the 1960 to accommodate 100 inmate but yesterday’s lock up stated that there were more than 546. There was no sleeping space in the cells except sitting position overnight. An inefficient judiciary delayed court proceedings and exacerbated overcrowding. The country's prisons, which were built to hold 5,500 inmates, held nearly 15,000 prisoners and detainees. Lusaka Central Prison, which was designed to accommodate 200 prisoners, held more than 1,500, forcing some inmates to sleep sitting upright. Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison was constructed in 1961. It was built for a capacity of 400 inmates but it now accommodates 1,442 prisoners.
Alternatives. There are alternative punishments rather than incarceration. This does not include treatment for alcohol or drug addictions or mental health, but does include community service or financial recompense. It does not include family group conferencing or victim-offender mediation.
Zimbabwe Assessment
Physical space.
The
government's 43 prisons were designed for a capacity of 16,000 prisoners but
held approximately 25,000, according to media reports.
Edison Chiota, ZACRO's national director said, "I can tell you that a cell
designed to carry
10 prisoners is usually packed with 40 people". Solidarity Peace Trust reported
on the way
"political arrestees are routinely and deliberately overcrowded, with 30 or more
people being kept at times in cells intended
for six." In 2004, a former prisoner gave a clear idea of how
severe the overcrowding was when he described how prisoners slept in the close
confines: "We slept fitting into each other like spoons... Once you have taken a
sleeping position you cannot turn and change
sides the entire night due to overcrowding. Alternatively, prisoners take
turns to sleep."
Alternatives.
The introduction
of community service within the criminal justice system of Zimbabwe
played a significant role in relieving the country of the costly expenses
it was incurring in maintaining
offenders in prisons. It further helped in solving the problem of
overcrowding. About 17500 offenders benefited
from community service programmes from
1993 to 2000, and 90% completed their punishments.
The successful inception and implementation of community service by the Zimbabwean government later inspired many African countries to incorporate community service as a non-custodial measure, especially with regard to minor offences.
2. KEY
RECOMMENDATIONS (excerpts):
regarding
2.1 Alternatives,
Ouagadougou (2002) Declaration on Accelerating Prison and Penal Reform in Africa.
Strategies for preventing people from coming into the prison system include:
• Use of alternatives to penal prosecution such as diversion in cases of minor offences with particular attention to young offenders and people with mental health or addiction problems.
• Recognition of restorative justice approaches to restore harmony within the community as opposed to punishment by the formal justice system – including wider use of family group conferencing, victim offender mediation and sentencing circles.
• Use of traditional justice as a way of dealing with crime in line with constitutional guarantees and human rights standards.
• Decriminalisation of some offences such as being a rogue and vagabond, loitering, prostitution, failure to pay debts and disobedience to parents.
• Develop and promote models for replication throughout the continent, such as the Community Service scheme developed in Zimbabwe, the diversion scheme in Namibia and South Africa, the sector-wide approach in Uganda, the prison farm and paralegal models developed in Malawi
Prison Conditions in Africa, held at Kampala (1996),
recommend:
1. That, whenever possible petty offences should be dealt with by mediation and
should be resolved between the parties involved without recourse to the criminal
justice system,
2. That the principle of civil reparation or financial recompense should be
applied, taking into account the financial capability of the offender or of his
or her parents,
3. That the work done by the offender should if possible recompense the victim,
4. That the community service and other non-custodial measures should if
possible be preferred to imprisonment,
5. That the public should be educated about the objectives of these alternatives
and how they work.
International Conference on Community Service
Orders in Africa, held in Kadoma, Zimbabwe, (1997),
make the following Declaration:2
1. The
use of prison should be strictly limited as a measure of last resort. Prisons
represent a waste of scarce resources and human potential. The majority of
prisoners who occupy them pose no actual threat to society.
2. The overcrowding in our prisons requires positive action through, inter alia,
the introduction of community service.
3. Community service is in conformity with African traditions of dealing with
offenders and with healing the damage caused by crime within the community.
Furthermore, it is a positive and cost-effective measure to be preferred
whenever possible to a sentence of imprisonment.
4. Community service should be effectively implemented and supervised and
involve a programme of work where the offender is required to carry out a number
of hours of voluntary work for the benefit of the community in his or her own
time.
5. There should be promotion of community support through sensitization
campaigns targeting public opinion; and the development of statistical databases
to measure the effectiveness of community service.
6. We adopt the Plan of Action:
1. Network. Establish a network of National Committees on Community Service and other interested groups to provide mutual support and encouragement through:
2. Community service directory. Compile a community service directory. To this end, a home page will be established on the Internet informing interested persons of developments in this area.
3. Newsletter. Issue a newsletter: • To be produced by each National Committee on Community Service at regular intervals and circulated to the network.
4. Research and data-gathering.
Lilongwe (2004) Declaration on Accessing Legal Aid in the Criminal Justice System in Africa.
In the village. Governments should introduce measures to:
• Encourage NGOs, CBOs and faith-based groups to train local leaders on the law and constitution and in particular the rights of women and children; and in mediation and other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures.
• Establish referral mechanisms between the court and village hearings. Such mechanisms might include:
– diversion from the court to the village for the offender to make an apology or engage in a victim-offender mediation;
– referral from the court to the village to make restitution and/or offer compensation
– appeals from the village to the court.
• Establish a Chief’s Council, or similar body of traditional leaders, in order to provide greater consistency in traditional approaches to justice.
• Record traditional proceedings and provide village hearings (‘courts’) with the tools for documenting proceedings.
• Provide a voice for women in traditional proceedings.
• Include customary law in the training of lawyers.