IT did not come to me as a surprise when the Arusha Member of Parliament, Godbless Lema came up with that statement of wishing a good number of Mps could be incarcerated so that they can become more aware of the bad prison laws which still exist in our statutes books.
And actually that was just a follow up
of another member of parliament some few years back when she tested the
life in a remand prison cell at Tabora had also to come up with serious
complaints and allegations in the Parliament on how inhuman the life is
in prisons.
In Zanzibar too, the Chief Justice of
Zanzibar Omar Othman Makungu once paid a visit to some of the
reformatory centres (prisons) in Zanzibar and came out with a feeling
that was described by the press, “the hellish life in our crammed jails.
” That reminds us of the prisons in
antiquity which was self –consciously punitive; their internal regimes
were intentionally inhumane.
Imprisonment was part of the suffering
intended to prisoners to pay back for the harm done by their crimes. It
was very agonizing when the famous prisoner Mr. Nelson Mandela once said
that “no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A
nation should not be judged by how it treats highest citizens, but its
lowest.”
Of late there have been a lot of
suggestions coming from different quarters on improvement of the
prison’s conditions! Several members of parliament in the past have made
their voices on how to salvage the prison service which seems to
receive a raw deal when it comes to financial resources.
It is disheartening to hear from
government officials that prisons are not places for enjoyment but are
of punishment. That does not auger well with the spirit of
rehabilitation and social reintegration.
The prison environment is supposed to be
conducive to a human habitation. It should be known that offenders are
sent to prisons as a punishment and not for punishment and therefore
prison environments must be safe and humane and as close as possible to
conditions in the community.
Prison is that component of criminal
justice system which has the greatest impact on the freedoms, liberties
and rights of individuals. Therefore members of Prison Service involved
in corrections must respect fundamental human rights in every aspect of
their work and must be guided by a belief in fairness and equality under
and before the law.
The punishment is awarded by the court
of law by depriving offender’s freedom they enjoy by isolating them from
their families to the prisons and is not a question of the prison
authority to punish them again.
Suggesting that prison is not a place of
enjoyment amounts to endorsing the prison authority to punish offenders
and that would make President Mandela in his grave to remember his
incarceration days which he has vowed not to remember! Why does it take
so long to adopt the emerging new trends in our criminal justice system?
The UN Standard Minimum Rules are often
regarded by states as the primary source of standards relating to
treatment in detention, and are the key framework used by monitoring and
inspection mechanisms in assessing the treatment of prisoners. But
these have been revised and are known as Nelson Mandela Rules. Countries
are encouraged to reflect the “Mandela Rules” in their national
legislation so that prison administrators can apply them in their daily
work.
Just recently the Minister for Home
Affairs Mwigulu Nchemba cautioned the prison officials to crack the whip
on prisoners who are still engaging in the criminal activities while in
jail by communicating with colleagues outside the prison. Probably you
might have heard the criminal terminology known as “prison subculture”
very common to penologists.
This is necessitated by having obsolete
correctional system faced with the emergence of prison gangs and new
organized crimes. Such offenders prefer to be incarcerated as a way of
furthering recruitment within the prisons of new willing prison
radicalized offenders such as terrorist, pirates, religious fanatics and
political deviants.
These prison gangs share common values,
norms, beliefs and customs with their own formulated inmate code and
they are criminal organizations that originate within the penal system
operating within correctional facilities. They are also
self-perpetuating criminal entities that can continue their criminal
operations outside the confines of the penal system
. It is a prerequisite to have an
effective parole system that can monitor and support the released
offender on parole through gradual controlled release to half way
houses. In developed countries also now evidenced in our country, gangs
commit criminal activities, recruit new members in urban, suburban, and
rural regions across and develop criminal associations that expand their
influence over criminals.
The most notable trends is the current
“boda boda” criminals with unprecedented solidarity. The overall
increase in gang membership and the expansion of criminal street gangs
control of street-level drug sales and collaboration with other criminal
organizations.
Gangs are becoming more violent while
engaging in less typical and lower-risk crime, such as prostitution and
whitecollar crime. Gangs are more adaptable, organized, sophisticated,
and opportunistic, exploiting new and advanced technology as a means to
recruit, communicate discretely, target their rivals, and perpetuate
their criminal activity.
The indicators are already flushing red.
These include the presence of drugs in our country, the new advanced
technology, reliable communication system, cell-phones, bodaboda; all
these if not well managed can be catalysts to the speeding of prison
gangs mushrooming in our prisons.
The introduction of unit management in
prisons would go a long way in managing the emerging of prison gangs
that may escalate the sophistry in commission of crimes.
The prison gangs, prison radicalization
are imports which come together with the new technology as such should
be dealt with the same technology embraced in the new Correctional
Philosophy of Risk Assessment and Management.
mgosiwasui87@gmail. com +255754342711 Board Member National Parole Board, Penal Reform International
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