Yes, Prisoners' Rights Should Be Respected

Africa News Service, September 22, 2016

From Global Issues in Context

Sep 22, 2016 (Tanzania Daily News/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- A High Court judge had
determined that the problem of overcrowding in the country's prisons, could be eased if most of the
remanded suspects could be bailed out. Judge Joaquine de Mello said the rights of inmates are
compromised by overcrowding.

The judge is right. Prison congestion in this country is a worrisome scenario. For instance, the
Dodoma Central Prison at Isanga, whose official capacity is 784 inmates has more than 1,000. In
similar vein, Maweni Prison in Tanga has more than a thousand instead of 920.

Segerea Prison in Dar es Salaam has more than 1,870 while its capacity stands at 920. Keko Prison
has 1,140 prisoners while the official capacity is 420. Prisoners are, quite often, tortured through hard
labour, insulted, hit and fed on badly cooked food.

They sleep on hard cold floors and incidents of sodomy are rampant among men. Already, the
government has seen all these problems and has called on prisons officers to treat prisoners
humanely despite the stark reality that they live in incarceration.

They are in prison because they offended the State and members of the public generally. But they are
still human beings who have a right to decent living. So, prisoners are entitled to a number of human
rights that they should be allowed to enjoy even though they are in jail. In fact, for most prisoners, what
is actually taken away from them is freedom of movement in the free world.

Even prisoners who are in maximum security penitentiaries for life and those who have been
condemned to hang for committing heinous felonies which include murders, have human rights that
must be respected, despite their limited societal integrity.

Nevertheless, immoral conduct among prisoners in jails prevails because some, if not all, are normally
frightening criminals who have caused mayhem in the free world and are "at home in prison."

Some are not repentant and have no qualms at all about their crimes. However prisoners are in
penitentiaries so they reform and become law abiding citizens. But some are in jail serving life-long
sentences. Others have a date with the hangman. And have no remorse.

Some continue committing felonies even behind prison walls. They attack prison warders or fellow
prisoners sometimes for no apparent reason. This misconduct, psychiatrists believe, is likely to stem
from the hardships they go through. Some suffer mental breakdown.

Others attempt or succeed in committing suicide. Indeed, life in Tanzanian prisons is not a bed of
roses. A survey carried out last year showed that some prisons housed too many convicts.
The Judicial System needs to respect the National Prosecutions Service Act, 2007, fully and see to it
that arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, illegal prosecutions and unjustified imprisonments do not
occur. This will help trim down prison congestions.

Copyright Tanzania Daily News. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2016 COMTEX News Network, Inc. Africa News Service. News Provided by
Comtex.
http://www.comtexnews.com

Source Citation
"Yes, Prisoners' Rights Should Be Respected." Africa News Service 22 Sept. 2016. Gl
obal Issues in Context. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

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