The African Correctional Services Association conference ended yesterday. The presentations by various African nations has been very informative. I was especially impressed with the presentation of the Lesotho Correctional Services. Lesotho is a small mountain country completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa.
Lesotho has a population of 1.8 million people. Their prison population is just over 2,400 with 61 female inmates and 43 juvenile inmates. The Lesotho Correctional Services does home interviews with the community, village chief, neighbors and victims as a means of addressing their concerns when inmates are reintegrating into the community. They utilize Restorative Justice, Victim-Offender meetings; and focus on Ho'Oponopono in community peace building (for those who are not aware of it: Ho'Oponopono is a Ancient Hawaiian approach that includes personal accountability and forgiveness - recognizing we are all one). Lesotho also has conditional parole and amensty and they include victim input into these processes. There is mandatory education for prisoners and they are provided vocational skills. The religious and faith based communities play a key role in volunteer programs and in the provision of clothing and toiletries.
We have also had some presentations from some NGOs. We ended the day with a very long road trip to Jinji, to see where Lake Victoria (the world's largest tropical lake) flows into and begins the White Nile River.
Today there are some supplemental workshops about Corrections in Peace Keeping missions (such as in S. Sudan) and also on Rehabilitation through Educational and Vocational Programmes with examples from Nigeria, Kenya, and Burundi.
Most nations have a form of parole in their laws, but most have not begun to implement parole; Zambia and South Africa have implemented parole with the assistance and training provide by the National Parole Board of Canada.
Kenya has is currently working to develop parole guidelines; they have parole legislation but have not implement parole yet. They have 650 probation officers and they use probation hostels as a way to address some of the challenges of addressing the myriad issues of a diverse rural population. In the last 15-20 years, Kenya has begun to include victim participation in their criminal justice processes. There is victim impact at sentencing and probation officers are required to include victim input in their pre-sentence reports. Kenya is currently has Victims Rights Act legislation being introduced.
Zambia uses Victim Offender Mediation as well.
South Africa reports that they have 50,000 people on parole and probation. They are utilizing risk and needs and taking a holistic approach to rehabilitation of offenders. The parole board in S. Africa is an independent body attached to the Commission of Prisons.
Basic human needs in prisons is a huge issue across Africa, as is access to justice pre-trial. There are a number of NGOs, including the Civil Justice Society, that are working with several African countries to address the horrendous problem of pre-trial detainment that significantly impacts prison overcrowding. In Uganda, 54% of the prison population are people who are awaiting trial. A component of the pre-trial problem is the difficulty in communicating with the families of persons arrested. The infrastructure in Africa is not like in America where we have phones, cell phones and street addresses for most people.
I will update you further over the next few days.
I continue to be touched by the kindness of the African people. Jeri
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