By Crispina Lois Cummings
The Executive Director of the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) says about 300 inmates at the Pademba Road prison don't have files to indicate the crimes they committed so that they can be tried.
Ibrahim Tommy told journalists on Tuesday that some of the inmates had served up to six years in prison without trial, noting that that showed a weakness in the country's criminal justice system.
Tommy said that two weeks ago, his organisation engaged the police, prison officers and other partners in a seminar to discuss the draft “Correctional Service Bill”, which he said did not involve persons with disability, pregnant and lactating women.
He said those categories of people were sent to prison without respecting their human rights pointing out that the objective of the press conference was to raise their voices so that the bill would be tabled before parliament and go through the processes of becoming a law.
Tommy said if that bill was passed, the Pademba Road Prison would be transformed into a correctional center and not a place to punish people. He added that the prison was in a deplorable state and that the rights of inmates had been largely neglected.
The CARL boss urged law officers' department to do all they could to get those 300 inmates freed. He also asked parliament to listen to and consider the contributions of civil society groups to the bill and to subsequently table and enact it.
(C) Politico 01/05/14
