Even Dead Bodies Must Work - Office of the High Commissioner for ...

I. Background
The Ugandan Prison System
Uganda has 223 prisons countrywide. Designed to house 13,670, in March 2010 Ugandan
prisons were at 224 percent of capacity, with 29,136 male and 1,278 female prisoners in
custody. 2 The Uganda Prisons Service employs 6,700 staff, including 6 physicians. 3
In addition to prisons run by the central government, prior to 2006, local governments
administered independent prisons, at which conditions were reportedly grossly inadequate. 4
The Prisons Act of 2006 transferred the functions and administration of these locally
administered prisons to UPS, 5 to create one nationwide system. Significant problems remain
at the over 170 6 former Local Administration Prisons (LAPs). 7 Although approximately one
third of Uganda’s prisoners were housed in former LAPs in March 2010, 8 prisoners in former
LAPs constitute the majority of those not served by prison-based health facilities. 9
Currently, UPS operates two official categories of prisons: reception centers and farm
prisons. Although practice varies, in general, remandees and prisoners convicted of petty
offences (with sentences less than one year) are kept at reception centers; male prisoners
convicted to serve sentences over a few months but less than 10 years, or those with a short
period of time remaining on their sentences, are sent to farm prisons. Remand or convicted
prisoners facing or serving sentences over 10 years are sent to maximum security reception
2 Uganda Prisons Service (UPS), “Summary of UPS Prisoners Statistical Returns,” March 2010,
http://www.prisons.go.ug/reports/0310.pdf (accessed March 24, 2011).
3 UPS, “Programme 04: Prisons Medical Services: Work Plan and Budget FY 2010/11,” August 2010, p. 1.
4 See, e.g., Uganda Human Rights Commission, “Statement from the Uganda Human Rights Commission Presented at the 61st
Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights by Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya,” April 2005,
http://www.nhri.net/pdf/UG18b.pdf (accessed April 12, 2011).
5 Prisons Act of 2006, sec. 116.
6 The Republic of Uganda Office of the Auditor General, “Value for Money Audit Report of Uganda Prisons Service,” March 2010,
http://www.oag.go.ug/uploaded_files/1273680950Prisons.pdf (accessed May 5, 2011), p. 1.
7 Prison authorities wrote to Human Rights Watch, “Our budget is still low compared to the tasks at hand. The transfer of former
Local Administration Prisons to the center by the Prisons Act 2006, has increased tasks before us.” Email correspondence from
prison authorities to Human Rights Watch, May 19, 2011. See also U.S. Department of State, “2009 Human Rights Report:
Uganda,” 2010, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/af/135982.htm (accessed August 10, 2010); Human Rights Watch
interviews with prison medical authority, Uganda Prisons Service, Kampala, March 11, 2011; OC, Fort Portal Prison, November 15,
2010; OC, Muduuma Prison, November 12, 2010.
8 Human Rights Watch estimates that in March 2010, approximately 20,448 prisoners were housed in former centrally administered
prisons, and 10,137 in former LAPs. UPS, “Summary of UPS Prisoners Statistical Returns”; UPS and Covenant Word Ministries,
“Uganda Government Prisons By District,” undated, http://www.cwm.or.ug/coverage.pdf (accessed May 4, 2011).
9 Human Rights Watch interview with prison medical authority, UPS, March 11, 2011.
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