PRISONERS FOR NO CRIME
DAILY MONITOR 17 MAY 2007
On one would like to be a
PRISONER for even a day but for some
children they have no choice they have to be in
jail. This is the unfortunate
situation for children born while their parents are in jail or on remand. Therefore, as their mothers serve their sentences or await their trial, so do their little children, enduring the life of the accused without ever having flouted any law. A look at Malukhu Prison in Mbale municipality reveals this shock as eight of the 35
inmates are in jail with their children. This situation isn’t only in Mbale one of Uganda’s up country towns but across the country. The big question is are children supposed to be in prison with their parents when they have not committed any crime? According to Margaret Obonyo, the officer in charge of the female wing at Malukhu Prison, the law
permits a child to stay with its mother for one year and eight months, after which it should be taken back home. This is law seeks to ensure that the child gets its mother protection when it is most important during its early stage in life.
However it is common to find children older than this in prisons with their parents. At times no one comes up to take the children home or the mother doesn’t have the necessary funds to look after the kid when she is still jail. This is the situation many prison staff face in Uganda with no social welfare system in place to look after these children. So children well past the age the law permits to stay in jail aren’t rare in Ugandan prisons. The development of these children is affected since the food provided typically lacks ample
nutrients for adults, let alone for growing children. When split among two or three or even more people, the nutritional value is depleted even further. Mothers with children aren’t given extra food to cater for their children.
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