Why convicts now outnumber remandees in Uganda prisons

Previously, the prisons had more inmates on remand than the convicts serving their various sentences. But the trajectory has in the recent past since changed with now the convicts being more than those on remand.

Statistics obtained from the Prisons show that there are 41,065 convicts, while those on remand awaiting the court’s decision are 36,284. The debtors are 523, bringing the total of the inmates to 77,872.

This means that the convicts are now more than those on remand by 4,781.

Explaining why there has been a shift in numbers, Mr Frank Baine, the Prison's spokesperson, attributed it to the raft of innovations brought about by the legal system like plea bargaining.

“The game changer has been the introduction of the plea-bargaining program. It’s the one that has brought the remand numbers down and increased on the convicts,” Mr Baine said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Under the plea-bargaining process, an innovation by the Judiciary that is intended to reduce the case backlog, the accused person voluntarily pleads guilty to the charges in exchange for a lenient sentence or offence.

For example, if an accused person is facing murder charges, once he/she voluntarily pleads guilty to the crime, the court can hand him/her a 10-year jail term instead of a life sentence or even a death sentence since the accused would have owned up to his mistakes and also not wasted the court's time.

Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo in his new law year address last year applauded the use of plea-bargaining programme, an innovation he said had played a commendable role in delivering quick and acceptable justice to the parties.

“It has undoubtedly helped in reducing case backlog and decongestion of Prisons. In addition to saving money, the programme has also greatly reduced the ratio of convicts to remandees and has played a big role in prison decongestion” CJ Dollo said in his address.

Adding: “It guarantees speedy trials as it is not tied to the first-in first-out principle, but rather, welcomes all inmates who have chosen to own up to their crimes. In this way, it cuts down the cost of feeding remandees since convicts are usually transferred to prison farms hence making them producers rather than consumers,”

Speaking to this publication yesterday, Mr James Ereemye Mawanda, the public relations officer of the Judiciary attributed the reduction in the number of remand inmates to a raft of measures that have been introduced.

He named them as granting bail to suspects who meet the requirements as opposed to holding of suspects unnecessarily, reconciling warring parties, involving the public in judicial matters, and also (judicial officers) being available to handle cases in court.

“Now, more people are being released on bail, especially those facing petty offenses. Why would we decline to grant bail and congest prisons for nothing? So, all in all, we have introduced those meaningful interventions aimed at reducing the case backlog,” Mr Ereemye said.

He added: “Also, because of mass sensitisation of the inmates and the masses at large, this has translated into a higher enrolment of suspects on plea bargain programmes than ever before, and also the citizen participation in these innovations is higher and no longer passive like it used to be before.”

Mr Baine also attributed the use of video conferencing (a process where suspects appear via Zoom from their prison confines) instead of being transported to courts physically, leading to delays on the way as one of the reasons why there has been that shift.

He named such prisons that have so far been connected with video conferencing devices as Luzira, Kigo, and Masaka.

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