Byabasaija blames prison crowding on DPP, Judiciary

The Commissioner General of Uganda Prisons service, Dr Johnson Byabashaija, has said the current congestion in prisons can only be blamed on the challenges facing the the criminal justice system in the Judiciary and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) office.

Dr Byabashaija argues that the remedy of building other prison facilities is not a sustainable solution but the government should allocate more funds to the Judiciary and DPP to ensure that process of serving justice is expedited.

“The current congestion in prisons is not our problem, it is a problem of the criminal justice system. If cases are not worked on in time by the Judiciary and the DPP, we will have many prisoners. That is the challenge we are having at the moment,” Dr Byabashaija said.

Dr Byabashaija made the comments last Friday at their head offices in Luzira in reference to the earlier comments from the European Union head of delegations in Uganda Kristian Schmidt, who quoted a report released by the US on the congestion and human rights violations in prisons, while he delivered a consignment of personal protection equipment (PPE) to fight Covid-19 in prisons.

“We commend the prisons in Uganda for containing Covid-19 in prisons because we were expected that the outbreak of Covid-19 would have been dire...the international human rights further require good treatment and congestions should be monitored,” Mr Schmidt indicated.

Dr Byabashaija said there is a need to recruit more judges to courts of law and have the DPP expedite the process of prosecution.

“There is a need for a sector-wide approach to budget and a development fund for the criminal judicial system. The number of judges needs to be stepped to avoid the backlog of the case,” he said.
‘‘However, we as prisons are going to build more facilities. We shall have a Kitalya prisons branch in Masaka District, Gulu District and Arua District,” he added.

Manpower in Judiciary
Currently, available information indicates that there are 189 Grade 1 Magistrates, and only 32 Grade 2 Magistrates and 47 chief magistrates out of the desired 100. 

There are 60 judges out of the desired 82, 14 Justices of the Court of Appeal and 12 justices of the Supreme Court for an adult population of over 51.9 per cent.

By end of 2019, the case backlog stood at about 36,009 cases, with the Land Division of High Court with 5,681 cases, Anti-Corruption Court (61), Commercial Court (5,454), Criminal Division (1,276), Civil Division (1,364), Execution and Bailiffs (2,832), Family Division (2,705), and 33 at International Crimes Division.
Ms Jacquelyn Okui, the spokesperson of DPP told Daily Monitor yesterday that the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a huge case backlog which has been the reason for the current congestion in the prisons.

“Prisoners were not produced in court for their trials in order to prevent the spread of the virus, especially during the lockdown and shortly thereafter. The hearing of cases stalled to a greater extent for the same reason. However, some measures have been and are being undertaken to reduce the case backlog. These include weeding out of cases that need not be in the system, plea bargain sessions and the usual criminal court sessions,” Ms Okui said.

However, Ms Okui added: “Many more sessions at all court levels of course would go a long way in tremendously reducing the backlog.”

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