The government of Uganda is seeking shillings 103 billion to construct new prisons to curb congestion in the current cells.
During the 28th Joint Government of Uganda Development partners access to Justice sub-programme annual review that was held at Imperial Royale Hotel, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Robert Kasande revealed that the programme is challenged by the problem of prison congestion.
According to him, the challenge lies at the centre of the criminal justice system which has many other issues that need to be addressed.
He further explained that statistical modelling depicts prison population to increase to 153,145 prisoners by the year 2031/2032 with a corresponding holding capacity of 29,371 and a corresponding congestion of 521.4%.
According to him, the space for one prisoner will be occupied by six prisoners at this point.
Kasande, therefore noted that constructing more facilities such as mini-maximum security prisons with a capacity of holding 4,000 prisoners each is inevitable.
Frank Baine, the spokesperson for the Uganda Prisons Service says that Uganda currently has 266 prisons keeping a total of 76,432 detainees with a holding capacity of 21,000 prisoners.
