Prisoners to get pay raise
The new plan proposes that prisoners are paid Shs1,000 per day. FILE PHOTO
KAMPALA- The government is in final stages to increase the pay for prisoners who provide labour on both private and government projects, a senior Uganda Prisons Service officer has said.
Assistant Commissioner of Prisons Apolo Baker Asinja said the labour rewards provided to inmates have been revised upwards in line with the current living costs computed by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
“Prisoners’ remuneration is being revised up to Shs1,000 and it was agreed. It is about to be approved by the relevant authorities. We had to seek guidance on the rates to be in line with the current standards,” he said at the two-day training workshop for northern region senior prison staff on management of vulnerable prisoners.
Pay per day
According to the instrument signed by the minister of Internal Affairs in 2000, skilled labour is paid Shs500 per day, semi-skilled labourers get Shs200 while the unskilled ones get Shs100.
Without giving specifics, Mr Asinja said the lowest will be paid above Shs1,000 per day in line with United Nations Standard Minimum rules on treatment of prisoners.
Rule 40 of the Standard Minimum Rules on Treatment of Prisoners prohibits servitude, slavery or requiring prisoners to work for personal or private benefit of any prison staff.
The rule provides that any work should be useful for the prisoner’s job prospects after release or be remunerated and take place in safe and legal conditions.
Rights organisation, Penal Reform International (PRI) with partners organised the training aimed at creating awareness on the Standard Minimum rules on treatment of prisoners.
PRI Africa programme manager Doreen Kyazze commended the initiative, saying the payment will support prisoners to meet their needs upon release.
“This is another way of contributing to re-offending to support life after prison. The review will bring in tandem with the prevailing economic changes of life,” she said, adding that the pay raise is supplementary to the skills attained while serving their sentences.
She observed there is no particular training offered to prison staff to care for mental health despite the increasing convicts with mental disabilities which presents a risk to prisoners, partners and staff.
“There is need for reform in regard to continued incarceration of prisoners with disabilities and without any certainty on when they would be transferred to appropriate institutions. Many of them remain in prison on ministers’ order with indefinite sentences,” said Ms Kyazze citing a case of an old man who died in Fort Portal Prison after serving 20 years on minister’s order.
