By Uganda Prison Services has declared the end of the standby class one order for all prisons that was previously issued during the festive season.
This order was issued from December 15th to January 12th, 2023.
The prison’s spokesperson Frank Baine says everyone is now at liberty to visit their loved ones in prison.
During the standby class one period, no visitors are allowed into Ugandan prisons, hired prison labor is suspended, no staff is granted leave, and routine patrols are heightened.
While addressing Journalists at police headquarters in Naguru, Frank Baine the prison’s spokesperson noted that the earlier issued standby class one directive had expired thus calling for normality in operations.
Frank Baine also revealed that the number of prisoners has shot up to a total of 77592 from 76367 as of November last year. He says these figures were registered during the festivities.
Of these 39602 have been convicted, 37555 are on remand and 435 are civil debtors who have pushed the congestion levels to 362.6 percent mainly attributed to overstay on remand.
The current prison system was meant to hold around 16,000 prisoners. However, a recent report shows nearly 40,000 prisoners are serving time. Human Rights Watch says over half of those inmates are still awaiting trial.
