African Unification Front
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AUF POLICY ON AFRICAN PRISON REFORM
Corrections facilities in Africa have a reputation for insanitary conditions and human rights abuses. In too many prisons and corrections facilities, inmates are beaten and tortured routinely. In others the lack of hygiene has resulted in deaths due to transmission of infections and lack of treatment. Moreover, there are too many people in prisons who have never been tried or convicted. Well over 50% of the prison population in Africa are there for no justifiable reason. In some states, the percentage is 75% or even higher.
Overcrowding and cruel neglect in prisons of the African Union is also a major concern. The Murchison Bay Prison in Uganda, a facility with an 800-inmate capacity, housed over 10,000 prisoners in 1987. Under Idi Amin in the 1970s prisoners at the State Research Bureau headquarters in Nakasero, Uganda, claimed they had survived torture and enforced starvation through cannibalism. One of the incidents that sparked war against the colonial regime in Sudan, was the incarceration of hundreds of people in a small cell that resulted in the suffocating death of 150 people in 1956.
The AUF promotes a corrections management philosophy that mirrors the incentives, goals, morals, and values of African society. The focus of this corrections philosophy is accountability for social development for the prison inmates, for public servants charged with running African correctional institutions, and for the community as a whole.
The current methods of corrections are inadequate and abusive in the extreme. In the future emphasis must be made to socialize corrections so that all of the community is involved in resolving the tensions that lead to criminal behaviour. Also it is imperative that we redefine what constitutes crime in an African context. It is no longer acceptable to incarcerate people for being poor or sick. It is also unacceptable to use and exploit forced labour, which is a major incentive for perpetuating the high numbers of incacerated people.
Criminal activity in the African Union is as much a product of social dislocation and the pressures of neocolonial exploitation, as it is a matter of subjective choice. Hence the defeat of neocolonialism through unification will help in resolving the causes of criminal behavior. African society should not have to pay the price for broken communities, brutal political regimes, and residual colonial institutions that demoralize and dehumanize persons.
Some Prisons and Correctional facilities in the African Union
C-Max Prison - Pretoria
Cooper Prison - Khartoum
Bentiaba Detention Camp - Namibe, Angola
Breakwater Prison [defunct]
El Harrach - Algiers
Elobied Prison - Sudan
Estrada de Catete Prison - Luanda, Angola
Hurso Prison - Ethiopia
Kadu Prison - Central Nigeria
Kagunga Prison - Rukungiri, Uganda
Kamwala Remand Prison - Lusaka, Zambia
Katojo Prison - Western Uganda
Kershele Prison - Ethiopia
King’ong’o Prison - Nyeri District (Kenya)
Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison - Nigeria
Luzira Maximum Security Prison - Central Uganda
Maison d'Arret et de Correction d'Abidjan [MACA]
Makindye Military Prison - Uganda
Masaka Central Prison - Uganda
Murchison Bay Prison - Western Uganda
Mutukula Military Prison - Uganda
Ngozi Womens Prison - Burundi
Pollsmoor Prison - SA
Security Prison and Internment Camp System - Sahara, Algeria
Tari Detention Center - Cuanza Sul, Angola
Ussher Fort Prison - Ghana
Ziway Prison - Ethiopia
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