Why former inmates hide behind fake names

A 29-year-old Solomon Okot was released in 2015 after being remanded to Lira Central Prison over defilement. Today, former friends still find it really hard to associate with Mr Okot.
“Many people still treat us as criminals; it’s like once you are imprisoned you wear the handcuff for your entire life,” says Mr Okot.
Apparently this explains why an ex-offender from Odero village, Agulurude parish, Loro Sub-county in Oyam District released after serving seven years in jail for aggravated robbery is currently using a pseudo name. A family friend says Opio Ajoka is comfortable using Opak Rwot as his new identity.

“He changed his name and relocated to another village after he was released from Loro Prison in 2017, and he has even reformed,” says Ms Joyce Ajok, a social worker.
Police say several ex-inmates in Lango sub-region hide their real identities behind pseudo names to give impression that they have never been incarcerated.
The North Kyoga regional police spokesperson, Mr David Ongom Mudong, says former inmates use fake names to confuse records as they attempt to evade justice.

“Because they know they are known by those names, and in case they go back to the society and reoffend, it’s very difficult to link them to the previous offences they earlier committed using those names. They are just trying to confuse their records,” he says.
Police now use national IDs to verify suspects’ names.
“Sometimes you have to request for their national ID to verify, you don’t just ask for their names and you stop there. No, you go ahead and ask for the national ID,” says Mr Ongom.
Police warn that people who end up in prison and they try to hide behind pseudo names upon release would be wasting time.

“Anyway, that is one of the strategies of trying to confuse their identities to divert investigations in case they recommit any offence. But sometimes it is very easy to identify them because you change your name but the face you can’t change it,” the North Kyoga regional police spokesperson says.
Human rights activists, local leaders and social workers say there are reasons for the use of pseudo names among ex-inmates such as social stigma and broken family bonds.

“Some individuals change names upon their release to avoid bad record,” says Mr Adams Makmot Kibwanga, a human rights lawyer.
Mr Hamza Okello, the youth leader of Atek Okwer Ibu clan, says the longer someone stays in prison, the harder it gets to reintegrate themselves back to society.
“Life in prison is never easy and in most cases if the charges [brought] against you were grave, one often feels rejected by the community,” Mr Okello says.

He explains that with the help of the rehabilitation services at the prison, one would love to reintegrate into the community and start a new life, build a home, set a good example to others and find a job for sustainability.
“All these cannot be achieved easily given your past character that many people may be aware of, so one of the coping mechanisms is a change of name possibly to show that one is changed or reformed and can be trusted again,” he explains.

“Such names can be inherited from the prominent people who are highly respected in the community to demonstrate a new life, be trust worthy, loved and easily acceptable by the people around,” Mr Okello adds.
Lango is one of the sub-regions in northern Uganda that suffered a long history of war. According to Uganda (Advisory Consortium on Conflict Sensitivity (ACCS), 2013; Eichelberger, 2015), the more than two-decade insurgency may have contributed to a relatively high crime rate in relation to other parts of the country.
Northern Uganda is reported to have the second highest prison occupancy rates after Kampala. Many youth involved in crimes end up in prison and after serving their sentences get back into their communities as social outcasts.

Ms Nancy Scovia Ajok, a student of Gulu University, notes that many young people end up in prison because they have failed to identify their potentials.
“If you need something and you cannot do anything to get it, you may end up stealing. If you steal, immediately you are arrested and prosecuted,” she says.
By October 2017, there were 56,400 inmates in different prisons countrywide, 95.4 per cent were male and 4.6 per cent were female. More than 80 per cent of the 56,400 inmates were young people.

Social workers say as prisons increasingly free large numbers of ex-offenders each year, the communities into which prisoners are released are unprepared to sustain the economic and social burden of the massive re-entry movement. Other obstacles awaiting individuals upon their release are social stigma, debt and often broken family bonds.
A March 2017 survey commissioned by Advance Afrika, a not-for-profit organisation, showed that community perception and receptiveness of ex-inmates was largely influenced by, among others, low confidence in the justice system, different expectations regarding justice outcomes and ex-inmates’ behaviour.

Bernard, who was released from Lira main prison in 2015, struggles to find a secure employment. Mr Nelson Oyar says his son is committed to living on the right side of the law but finding work is still a challenge.
“Bernard is helping me with work at home like weeding cassava, and at times when there is building around, I tell him to go and give help to those builders as a helper,” he says.
On a daily basis, Bernard takes home Shs7,000, whenever he goes for such casual labour. But some ex-offenders are not as lucky as Bernard.

“In some cases, members of the community are willing to receive back their sons or daughter but we also have scenario where they don’t want this person at all… this person has to be relocated if the situation is really bad or else you find he or she is being lynched, burnt,” says Ms Sharon Atukunda, director of programmes of Advance Afrika.
But avoiding crime is only one challenge that ex-offenders face. Police say five youth ex-offenders were lynched by a mob in Lira Town on January 5, over alleged theft.
Currently, it is quite challenging for young inmates to access knowledge on entrepreneurship, psychosocial support and conflict transformation because Uganda Prisons Service cannot effectively carry out its rehabilitation programme due to financial constraints.

Caritas Switzerland says they have identified youth in prisons as a marginalised group with very little support from any other actor “and Uganda Prisons Service is struggling with significant challenges and resources in order to come up with their rehabilitation mandate”.
“So we successfully negotiated with Uganda Prisons Service to support them and to implement this rehabilitation programme together with them and to help youth ex-inmates to easily access economic opportunities,” Ms Kathrin Wyss, a delegate for Uganda and Rwanda working with Caritas Switzerland, told this newspaper in October 2017.
“We developed a pilot project in 2014, and this pilot phase turned out to be very successful and this cooperation with Uganda Prisons Service is highly professional,” she added.

Ms Atukunda says at least 1,643 young inmates (both female and male) in Lango and Acholi sub-regions have been empowered since 2014 under Advance Afrika’s initiative funded by Caritas Switzerland and European Union.
But critics argue that for effective reintegration of ex-inmates any intervention should not just stop within prisons but should also roll out to the community. They say community play a very crucial role in this process and it would be in their best interest for ex-inmates to be reintegrated as this reduces re-offending rate.
“As Advance Afrika, our interest is to develop interventions that support communities or individuals that are out and prevent them from engaging in crime,” Ms Atukunda says.

Prisons challenges

Uganda Prisons Service is still burdened with stressing challenges despite fetching support from different development partners.
“Prison is limited by personnel. There are very few social workers and yet there are so many inmates in prisons across the country,” says Ms Sharon Atukunda, director of programmes of Advance Afrika, an NGO.
“As of today, you would find the percentage of remands compared to the convicts is quite high. A prison, which should accommodate maybe 50 convicts, is accommodating over 200 and of which 80 per cent could be on remand,” Ms Atukunda adds.

According to a January 2017 parliamentary report, many prisons are housing up to three times their designated holding capacity.
The report blames the situation on the Judiciary, saying many cases are not concluded in time leading to unnecessary overcrowding.
The report states that underfunding and understaffing impedes the Judiciary’s efforts to execute its duties.

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