penitentiary administration – International Bridges to Justice

Historical mass release of detainees in Burundi

amuyango — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:20:41 +0000

Great news for Burundian detainees: on the 24th of March, the President, Pierre Nkurunziza, circulated a decree which stipulates the immediate release of hundreds of prisoners. The decree targets several categories of detainees, among which, pregnant and breast-feeding women, juveniles, and convicted prisoners who are over sixty years- old. Many sentences are reduced, like several life-sentences that are now commuted into twenty-year prison sentences, except for severe crimes that are clearly indicated.

This act of grace, hailed by the international community, is aimed at decongesting the Burundian prisons. The prisons undeniably show a worrisome rate of occupancy, namely 277%, with the prisons currently holding more than 11,000 detainees while the prison capacity is 4,050 people. These overcrowded and sub-standard prisons are unable to meet the basic medical, legal and social needs of the inmates and to fulfill a satisfying role in their reintegration into society.This situation has been highlighted many times by IBJ, especially during the roundtable discussions organized throughout 2009 and 2010. During these events, the main members of the criminal justice system such as lawyers, prosecutors, judges, police officers, prison officials and representatives of the administration, are encouraged to come up with their own solutions to the challenges of the criminal justice system. The last roundtable, held in Rumonge, gave the opportunity to tackle the issue of pre-trial detention. Many detentions prove to be illegal and some detainees spend months, if not years, waiting for trial, because time limits of detention are very often exceeded. This phenomenon widely contributes to prison overcrowding. During the meeting, participants had suggested that a mass release of detainees would be an appropriate answer to address prison overpopulation.

Above: The roundtable held in Gitega in October offered the opportunity to tackle the issue of pre-trial detention, which is one of the main causes of prison overcrowding in Burundi. (Photo by Jean-Baptiste Bouzard)

Conveyed by the Burundian media – including Isanganiro and Bonesha radios which always attend these roundtables – and jointly with other non-governmental Human Rights organizations, the government seems to have heard our requests to increasingly promote respect of the procedure. This decree is a resounding success for the criminal justice system, and for the overall observance of Human Rights in Burundi, as prison conditions should be improved. This decree gives once more the opportunity to recall that freedom always is the rule and detention the exception, as portrays IBJ banners in rights awareness campaigns. The President’s spokesperson actually reminded that principle on the radio when the decree was announced. This growing consciousness of the need to increasingly uphold the criminal procedure and safeguard the rights of the accused with Burundi’s government is a truly inspiring dynamic for our work in Burundi.

Above: The IBJ panel that reads: “Freedom is the rule, arrest and detention the exception”. Pictured here during the legal rights street campaign in Cibitoke. (Photo by Caroline Arnaud)

28 detainees released as a result of coordinated efforts of Burundian lawyers, magistrates and prison officials

fcachat — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:12:46 +0000

The roundtable discussion held in Gitega on October 15th on the issue of pre-trial detention concluded with great promises. The hope was to achieve a similar result as the one obtained following the roundtable discussion in Bubanza, which ultimately led to the release of 45 prisoners, among which 15 juveniles.

The promises have been kept. A month after the commitments taken during the roundtable discussion, 3 lawyers left Burundi’s capital city, led by IBJ Legal Fellow – Herman Ndayishimiye-, on November 24th to head to Gitega’s prison where André Mbayabya, the Prison Director, was waiting for them. Together, they scoured prison records and identified 182 cases of irregular pre-trial detentions. Among this overwhelming figure, 28 cases were identified as requiring immediate atention. The 4 lawyers therefore met with their clients, got familiar with each of their stories and prepared their defense strategy. As agreed with Gitega’s prosecutor and the magistrates who had attended the roundtable discussion, a special court session was conducted the day after to expedite these 28 cases. The result was a resounding success: all 28 detainees were immediately released.

This is a particularly significant result in today’s Burundi: recent prison riots – first in Gitega and then in Mpimba, Bujumbura’s central prison – have thrown the light on the detrimental prison living conditions, which have gotten worse since the peak of 11,000 prisoners nationwide has been reached two months ago. Irregular pre-trial detentions overburden a prison system which is already in shambles. Prisoners are not the only one protesting against the situation: Mpimba’s prison officials have declared that they would not accept any new prisoner in the prison as long as the trial of the many pre-trial detainees is not expedited. The ball is in the court system’s court.

Above: The detainees being escorted by a policeman to the Gitega Tribunal de Grande Instance (Photo by Dieudonné Ndayishimiye)

Above: Volunteer lawyer Diane preparing the defense of a client (Photo by Dieudonné Ndayishimiye)

Above: Volunteer lawyer Zénon preparing the defense of a woman (Photo by Dieudonné Ndayishimiye)

Above: There aren’t sufficient handcuffs within Burundi’s justice system. Detainees are usually handcuffed by pairs. (Photo by Dieudonné Ndayishimiye)

Above: Volunteer lawyer Diane interviewing a client before his court hearing (Photo by Dieudonné Ndayishimiye)

Above: Burundian detainees queuing for justice (Photo by Dieudonné Ndayishimiye)

Above: Inside a women’s cell in Gitega prison (Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer)

Above: Portrait of Gitega Prison Director, André Mbayabaya (Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer)

Sparking coordinated answers to pre-trial detention and educating citizens about their legal rights in Gitega

jbouzard — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:07:10 +0000

From October 14th to 16th IBJ left Bujumbura to head to Gitega, Burundi second largest city, to pursue its roundtable program and rights awareness campaigns. We already did the two hours drive in July with the visiting team from Geneva so as to visit the local prison and former participants to the June training session. We then came back in September to be formally introduced to officials and initiate the necessary contacts for organizing activities in the province.On Wednesday 14th October, after one holiday commemorating the assassination of Prince Louis Rwagasore, hero of national independence, the small IBJ car left Bujumbura with Astère, Claire and I onboard. We first went back to the same guest house where we lodged some 3 weeks before and then joined Nestor, APRODH local representative, to start with a first afternoon full of surveys. As usual, people were a bit shy and didn’t want to be the first to be interviewed. After a few minutes however, ice was broken and people were massing around interviewers and questions were answered by many participants at the same time, creating a nice mess with newcomers wishing to grab posters distributed by IBJ. This session lasted more than 3 hours, sometimes interrupted by heavy rain, a common fact during this period of the year. We were back at 6.30 in the guest house where we spent a quiet evening and we didn’t wait long before going to bed. We nonetheless took the precaution to order our breakfast in order to avoid last time surprise to wait for more than one hour to get 3 omelettes!

The day after started at 7am with our pre-ordered breakfast and we then dropped Astère at the venue so as for him to begin preparing for the event. Maître Herman Ndayishimiye, freshly recruited IBJ lawyer, was already waiting for us and replaced Astère in the car to head to the Vice Governor’s office, whom we had met 3 weeks before to express our wish to hold a roundtable and ask him to open the session. Unfortunately, he had forgotten the event and committed himself to open another roundtable. At the last minute, he nevertheless managed to free himself up to respect his initial engagement. In the meantime, the first participants had arrived at the venue, among them 6 lawyers coming from Bujumbura with Dieudonné, who has recently joined IBJ Burundi as a volunteer. After the opening speech of the Vice Governor and Astère’s welcome speech, Herman started animating the debates and introducing the problematic. Following the results reached in Bubanza, the session was once again dedicated to the question of pre-trial detentions. After having seen how pre-trial detentions were averse to the principle of alleged guiltlessness, the participants broke out into groups in order to identify the root causes of this phenomenon. Various ideas were suggested such as the lack of vehicles and fuel to allow judges to visit detainees and speed up procedures, the lack of access to lawyers or even paralegals to inform detainees of their rights. More challenging, some participants highlighted a certain shortage of professional conscience and even political pressures put on magistrates that lead to the justice dysfunction.

During the afternoon, participants were requested to reflect upon concrete solutions to put an end to this predicament. Numerous ideas were put forward, ranging from pleading the nullity of the procedure for lawyers defending long-term pre-trial detainees to making available police escorts to facilitate detainees’ transfers to courts so as to accelerate procedures. The most interesting proposal came along with the lawyers’ group suggesting to renew the operation held in Bubanza consisting in mandating lawyers coming from Bujumbura to visit Gitega prison and to point out illegal detentions. A few days after, a special court hearing could be organized where judges would statute on potential releases. Members of the penitentiary administration turned out enthusiastic and magistrates were not opposed to the proposal. Details have now to be discussed between IBJ and APRODH on how we could effectively support this effort.

After group pictures, participants went back home but the IBJ delegation stayed in Gitega for another last day of rights awareness campaign. Overall, about 1450 people have been educated about their rights in Gitega. We had a very safe night too, surrounded by several machine gun equipped security men, as the President of the Senate was also finding shelter at our guest house, even if he was hardly recognisable the next morning, as he was wearing sport suit and slippers… Our last day in Gitega went on smoothly and was dedicated to post-campaign surveys, aiming at evaluating the efficiency and visibility of our awareness efforts in Burundi. We finally left Gitega Friday at the beginning of the afternoon, after having shared a last lunch with our local partner APRODH representative and the young volunteers who helped us raising the population awareness. The drive back was a bit longer due to abundant rains making the road slippery and a few stops to buy delicious vegetables, while listening to rock music or religious preaches, depending on preferences. Anyhow, at the end of the path, it was a well deserved week-end for everyone.

Above: The banner displayed in downtown Gitega (Photo by Jean-Baptiste Bouzard)

Above: The Senior Counsellor of Gitega Governor opening the roundtable (Photo by Claire Habimana)

Above: Breaking out into groups: lawyers discussing strategies to curb pre-trial detention (Photo by Jean-Baptiste Bouzard)

Above: Senior prison officials putting together ideas to fight prison owercrowding in Gitega (Photo by Claire Habimana)

Above: Police officer exposing the commitments of the police to reduce pre-trial detention (Photo by Claire Habimana)

Above: Participants of the roundtable reflecting upon the challenge of delayed justice (Photo by Jean-Baptiste Bouzard)

IBJ Gitega Roundtable featured on National Burundian Radio “Isanganiro”

fcachat — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:19:16 +0000

Following up on the resounding success of Bubanza roundtable in late July 2009, a new roundtable discussion on the theme of pre-trial detention has been conducted, last week, at Gitega, the country’s second largest city. Similarly to Bubanza, Gitega prison struggles with overcrowding: while the official capacity is 400, 1504 prisoners are currently held within the walls of the prison. The Penitentiary Administration reports that, as of September 15th, 43% of these detainees are awaiting trial.

On October 15th, lawyers, magistrates, prosecutors, police officers and prison officials joined forces to explore concrete ways in which criminal procedures could be upheld, so as to reduce pre-trial detention. Participants courageously committed to alleviate the situation of Gitega prison: with the support of magistrates and prison officials, a group of lawyers will work at expediting the trials of pregnant women, girls and juveniles, who have been kept on remand beyond the legally-specified time period.

Bujumbura-based Isanganiro radio (which means “meeting point” in Kirundi) sent a journalist to cover the event and later related the news during its daily news program. 3 minutes of the 13-minutes program were dedicated to raise the attention on the country’s alarming prison overpopulation rate, listing the challenges relating to pre-trial detention and reminding of key criminal procedure provisions. The program concluded with highlights of the concrete commitments and plan of action agreed as a result of the roundtable.This coverage brings the light on a fundamental legal right too few Burundian citizens are aware of.

To listen to the radio program in French, please click here.

(Please note that the part dealing specifically with IBJ roundtable starts around minute 10).