Uganda Prisons Services has resolved to construct a new maximum security prison and correctional center to accommodate the high number of inmates. The decision was reached in a week long retreat for top Prison officials held at Paara Safari Lodge. The Uganda Prison Services, whose 212 facilities were built to hold 17,000 inmates, currently has up to 33,600 inmates.
Dr. Johnson Byabashaija, the Commissioner General Uganda Prison Services says that given the high population growth and rising crime rates, the existing prison facilities are likely to burst with criminals in the next ten years. He explains that Uganda Prisons undertook to expand Gulu, Kitalya, Oyam, Pader and Mbarara Prisons as a temporary measure to ease the congestion of inmates.
He now says that they want to construct a correctional prison centre with schools, laboratories, workshops for handcrafts and a maximum security prison for locking up hardcore criminals. Byabashaija says that the proposal to construct new prison facilities is a matter of urgency. He says that part of his solution to address the congestion in prison facilities, lies with relocating Luzira Maximum prisons to another area.
Byabashaija however says that, his proposal to relocate Luzira Prison is being hampered by the lack of a proper law on public private partnerships. He says once the law is enacted it would give Uganda Prison Services a chance to trade off the Luzira Prison land with a private investor for the construction of another maximum security prison elsewhere.
