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Prisons Congestion revives the parole system |
 THE Prisons department plans to revive the parole system, where prisoners are released before they complete their sentences. Parole applies to inmates who were imprisoned for a period of three years or more and are about to finish their sentences.
According to the Prisons Act 2006, the Commissioner General of Prisons
can temporarily release such inmates within six months of the date they
are due for release.
Dr. Johnson Byabashaija, the Commissioner General of Prisons, said the parole would help decongest the Prisons.
“It is no secret that the Prisons are congested. Facilities that were
meant to accommodate 9,428 inmates now house slightly over 30,000.
If we make further alternatives in the line of community corrections
rather than incarceration, then our efforts will not have been in
vain,” Byabashaija said at a workshop to sensitise senior Prisons
officers.
The workshop was held at the United Nations African Institute for the
Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI) headquarters in
Naguru, Kampala.
The workshop was facilitated by the International Centre for Criminal
Law Reform and Policy of Vancouver, Canada, UNAFRI and the Prisons
Department.
Presiding over the opening of the seminar, the internal affairs state
minister, Matia Kasaija, said the Government supported programmes like
the parole system in promoting the management of criminal justice in
the country.
Kasaija pointed out that in 2000, the Government introduced community service as an alternative to imprisonment.
He said the service and the parole system would help the Prisons decongest their institutions.
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