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{
    "id": 500528,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/500528/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 422,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mohamed Abass",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2983,
        "legal_name": "Abass Sheikh Mohamed",
        "slug": "abass-sheikh-mohamed"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I also wish to join my colleagues in supporting the Bill. This Bill is timely. The Bill is part of the Constitution that is geared to take care of human rights whenever you are deprived of liberty or freedom. However, what we are lacking in our prisons and places of custody is management or supervision. There should be independent bodies that should visit our prisons and places of custody such as the police stations where people are being held in remand. Otherwise, having the Bill does not mean much. What has been happening within our custodial places is that most people live with a kind of hopelessness. They feel condemned. It takes too long for them to be taken to courts for hearings and most of them breakdown out of being tortured inside the cells by the wardens. Even the hardcore criminals, those who have been condemned to spend a long time in detention, some leave the prisons having been physically abused or disabled. By the time they come out of prisons or wherever they have been detained, they experience breakdowns, go into depression and most of them die. Even the community does not accommodate them well. I want to thank the former President and the Vice-President, Moody Awori, for bringing a lot of reforms to those places. Of late, I think our prisons are becoming better. But they still need further improvements. The Bill gives the right of accommodation, support of groups such as children and persons with disability, right for nutrition and beddings. All those things will come if there is enough resources and money for the Prisons Service. That is the only time we will be able to achieve that. It is high time that this House comes up with the right budget for prisons and wherever people are detained, especially in police stations. If you go to police stations, the small rooms where people are being kept are so congested. In a place meant to accommodate 10 to 15 people, you will find 40 people. Even those people who are not hardcore criminals and have not committed serious crimes, for example just a traffic offence, are being kept in the same place. At the end of the day, they contract strange diseases. For petty offenders, that should not be the case. What needs to be done for petty offenders so as not to congest our prisons and police remand cells is to look for better options. One way is to help the petty offenders become productive by serving the public and giving better services. The legal representation in this country is too expensive. Those who are free are unable to afford it. The legal services should be affordable. The Government must come up with new systems that will support those criminals and people deprived of liberty. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}