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

Officially, the total UPS health budget was increased by 55 percent between fiscal year (FY)
2009/10 and FY 2010/11. 18 Yet the overall proportion of the prison budget allocated for
health services remained a flat two percent. 19 By comparison, the government provides
roughly 9 to 10 percent of its national budget to healthcare. 20 In 2009, the commissioner
general of prisons admitted to the media that lack of funding had led to deteriorating
infrastructure and health in Ugandan prisons. 21
Health services for the prisons are headed by a national directorate in Kampala. As of March
2011, 63 of Uganda’s 223 prison units had some level of healthcare worker. At the rest,
prisoners were expected to rely on the health facilities in the neighboring communities. 22
The national referral hospital for prisoners is at Murchison Bay Prison in Kampala. Murchison
Bay Hospital treats prisoners temporarily referred from other prisons to receive inpatient or
outpatient medical treatment, 23 and is the only medical facility in the prison system
accredited to provide TB treatment and antiretroviral therapy for HIV treatment. 24 The UPS
has established 10 regional health units intended to oversee delivery of healthcare
services. 25 Forty-nine additional health “units” across the UPS have healthcare workers. But,
in practice, the capacity of many of the facilities is limited: according to the prison medical
authority, “we have no doctors at all in the upcountry units, we have zero.” 26
18 The health budget increased from 0.87 billion Uganda shillings ($355,139) in FY 2009/10 to 1.35 billion Uganda shillings
($551,727) in FY 2010/11. UPS, “Work Plan and Budget,” p. iv. Prison authorities report that the recurrent non-wage budget of
the prison health services increased by 90 percent between FY 2009/10 and FY2010/11 (from 0.39 billion shillings ($149,460)
to 0.74 billion shillings ($283,559), and will again be increased by 56 percent in FY 2011/12 (to 1.15 billion shillings ($441,414)).
19 Human Rights Watch interviews with prison medical authority, UPS, March 11, 2011; UPS, “Work Plan and Budget,” p. 6.
Reportedly, prison health services may approach three percent of the overall prison budget in FY 2011/12. Human Rights Watch
interview with prison medical authority, UPS, March 11, 2011.
20 UPS, “Work Plan and Budget,” p. 28.
21 Isaac Khisa, “Funding Blamed for Deterioration of Uganda’s Prisons,” East Africa in Focus, October 5, 2009,
http://www.eafricainfocus.com/2009/10/04/funding-blamed-for-deterioration-of-uganda%E2%80%99s-prisons/ (accessed
August 11, 2010).
22 Human Rights Watch interview with prison medical authority, UPS, March 11, 2011; Letter to Human Rights Watch from prison
authorities, June 29, 2011.
23 Human Rights Watch interviews with OC, Murchison Bay Prison, November 10, 2010; doctor, Murchison Bay Hospital,
November 10, 2010.
24 Human Rights Watch interview with prison medical authority, UPS, March 11, 2011.
25 These units are located at Fort Portal, Masindi, Mbarara, Masaka, Jinja (M), Mbale, Gulu, Moroto, Arua and Kigo.
26 Human Rights Watch interview with prison medical authority, UPS, November 18, 2010.
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