Yei Prison In Deplorable Condition

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

The Prison Director, Christo Amin Yaku says that the latrines are now full due to the increasing number of criminals in the county and they are now posing a health risk.

He said that there is no land for dumping the waste.

In 2006 the county administration used to dig latrines regularly but the community at the host payam have resisted allocating a place to dispose the waste and this has affected the construction of new latrines.

There are 250 inmates held at the prison.

The director called upon the government to improve on the prison fence, rooms, and latrines and also provide a lorry to ensure that the waste is easily transported to the sites.

He appealed to the government to initiate vocational training at the institution to reform the prisoners and keep them busy.

Most of those detained are aged 14 to 24 years arising from adultery, theft, and motorbike accident cases.

Last year, the Human Rights Watch launched an investigative report depicting the harsh, unacceptable prison conditions in which detainees live in South Sudan prisons.

The report documented violations of due process rights, patterns of wrongful deprivation of liberty and serious flaws in the emerging justice system.

The research was carried out in twelve of the country’s 79 prisons during a 10-month period before and after South Sudan’s independence in areas with the largest prison populations.

It revealed that, a third of South Sudan’s prison population of approximately 6,000 has not been convicted of any offense or in some cases even charged with one, but are detained, often for long periods, waiting for police, prosecutors, and judges to process their cases.

The vast majority of detainees have no legal representation, because they cannot afford a lawyer and South Sudan has no functioning legal aid system, adding that Judges pass long sentences and even condemn to death people who, without legal assistance, were unable to understand the nature of charges against them or to call and prepare witnesses in their defence.

South Sudanese authorities welcomed the report pointing out infrastructural challenges, insecurity, budget constraints and other political problems that hinder government’s efforts to prioritise the improvement of the prisons in the country.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 250 inmates and a range of justice officials, correctional officers, police, prosecutors, and traditional authorities.

The Director General of National Prisons Service Abel Makoi Wol revealed that the South Sudanese prisons are transforming.

The prisons chief said that there are about 6650 prisoners in the country of which more than 4000 are convicted with 1600 on remand while others are children.

He also noted that the prisons are inadequate and that the inmates have accepted to endure the environment.

Since South Sudan gained independence last year, the government has been trying to improve given that the liberated areas only had containment centres.