WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

ADVEJI Provides legal representation to people who have been wrongly convicted, unfairly sentenced, or remanded for long periods without trial. We also advocate for reform to the justice system responsible for the wrongful conviction. For example, currently Uganda’s prison population of over 51,882, more than 26,900 (52%) are on pre-trial detention and for extended periods. This is a gross miscarriage of justice.

PRISONERS’ RIGHTS

Prisoners are human beings and are entitled to their rights both as human beings and as prisoners. ADVEJI provides legal support to prisoners and other detainees who are abused while in state prisons, police cells and other gazatted and non-gazatted detention centers.

PRISON CONDITIONS

ADVEJI challenges poor living conditions in prisons, police cells and detention centers characterized by overcrowding and sanitary challenges. Currently our prison facilities hold up to 51,882 prisoners yet they were built to hold only 16,612. This has resulted in scandalous national capacity levels of 312% with some prisons holding as high as 400%.  The recent completion of Kitalya Prison may only help for a short period of time considering the ever-growing case backlog that characterizes Uganda Judiciary.

RE-INTERGRATION

Our team also provides re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people so that they can easily be re-integrated into communities.

CHILDREN IN ADULT PRISONS

Children as young as eleven can still be charged and held in an adult prison. The conditions in which children are held on remand in adult prisons or police cells infringe their rights. Recent studies show that of all the children remanded in custody, half of these are remanded in places designated for adults. For all remandees, 44 per cent are detained for over three months and 24 per cent for over six months. Even the few remand homes available are usually congested or lack the basic facilities. For example the Naguru Remand Home that has a designated capacity of only 30 children, currently it is overfilled with many children. The conditions in both the adult prisons and the remand homes are very poor and they lower the child’s self-esteem and development, and put their health in grave risk.

ADVEJI is working to protect children from abusive treatment in the adult criminal justice system