The Commissioner Planning & Development for Uganda Prison Services, Mr Elly Muhumuza, has told Parliament’s Internal Affairs Committee that they are overwhelmed and urgently need Sh102.9b to put up 16 new mini-max prisons in the regions.
According to Muhumuza, Uganda prisons currently have a holding capacity of just 20,996, yet the facilities are accommodating at least 76,467 inmates, hence accounting for an excess capacity of 55,471 inmates.
“Some prisons are accommodating five times above the designed capacities. To solve that, we need to adopt the Kitalya model, our plan is to construct at least one prison that accommodates at least 4000 prisoners in each region and we have 16 prison regions,” said Muhumuza.
Uganda has the highest incarceration rate in the region with at least 16 out of every 100,000 Ugandans in prison.
Uganda Prisons Services wants 16 new regional mini-max prisons similar to Kitalya Prison which accommodates a maximum of 4,000 inmates.
According to Muhumuza, this will reduce on the congestion because, some prisons are accommodating a population that is 5 times the designed capacity.
