In an exclusive interview recently with
‘Sunday News’ the Board Member of Penal Reform International, a
worldwide NGO based in London, Mr John Nyoka, argues that lack of intake
assessment system in the prisons can be a leading factor to some
ex-convicts ending up being lynched in the
streets.
“The intake assessment is supposed to be
conducted by a panel of experts which is inadequate in prisons where
interrogators use 90 minutes to establish the best way to treat the
prisoner,” he explained.
He added that this is possible because
these teams are made up of multidisciplinary staff who can determine at
which level the convict should be placed.
“Depending on the intensity of risk that
the prisoner reveals to the assessment process based on his attitude
manifested during the interrogation the prison panel decides whether he
or she should go to maximum, medium or low security prison,” he said.
Mr Nyoka who is also Executive Director
of a local NGO, Inmate Rehabilitation and Welfare Services Tanzania,
further said that if there is any element of kleptomania, insanity or
psychosis manifested then appropriate measures are taken to address such
problems on the convict.
However, the Minister for Home Affairs,
Mr Charles Kitwanga, said that there were interventions going on to
address the mob justice phenomenon.
“It is one of our priorities to fight
lynching,” saying that it was common nowadays to see people contravening
the law. “We will continue to create public awareness and inform the
public on their duty to obey the law and avoid taking the law in their
own hands,” he stressed.
Police have already started to respond
quickly to criminal incidents and in case of mob justice they take
action by arresting all the suspects, said the minister.
He further said through community
policing his ministry was extending education to change people’s
attitude which reveals that they do not value life.
“It is the problem of the level of
civility where some people have disregard for human life which requires
adequate civic training,” he said.
“Imagine you can see some people killing
others because of a 500/- dispute or even others harming a kid for
nothing whatsoever,” he said.
He also said that the ministry was also
implementing recommendations on rapid response mechanisms and many other
strategies to curb crime.
He also said that the prisons have few
experts and those who are employed were overwhelmed by the workload.
However he said that the prisons have already started producing
ex-convicts who are skilled in various trades.
“We have examples of those leaving the
prison with outstanding skills such as a recent case of a high notch
tailor who is a product of Segerea prison,” he remarked.
“I agree with experts that strengthening
prison corrective systems will help to reduce crime in communities,
which is one of our priorities in the fifth phase government,” he
stressed. However, some experts say that some street beaten victims live
with kleptomania.
These are youths who live lives of
secret shame because they’re afraid to seek mental health treatment.
Although there’s no cure for kleptomania, treatment with medication or
psychotherapy may be able to help end the cycle of compulsive stealing,
say the experts.
Kleptomania is the inability to refrain
from the urge to steal items and is done for reasons other than personal
use or financial gain.
This, according to the experts, is a
recurrent failure to resist urges to steal items that you generally
don’t really need and that usually have little value than one’s loss of
life.
Some sociologists argue that people go
on theft spree because of socio-economic problems while the
criminologists are of the view that criminological factors are in every
human being but the degree varies as some are low or high.
It is further explained that some
individuals commit crime because of peer pressure. But Mr Nyoka argues
that in an ideal world, the Criminal justice system needs to be
effective in such a way that police, prosecution, judiciary and prison
should be effective.
“This means that arrests made should not
exceed 28 hrs before producing the suspect in courts, while the
prosecutions should work fast and ensure investigation is ready where
exhibits, witnesses are produced in the courts as soon as possible,”
said Mr Nyoka.
In any ideal criminal justice system any
convict with correction problem receives placement order for
reformation and treatment, he said. Mr Nyoka explains that the higher
the risk manifested by the convict attitude the most intense treatment
in the course of correction programme.
“When the convict shows improvement in
the way he conducts himself, he is rewarded by being moved to a low risk
level,” he said. He said that if the convict shows higher risk, he is
definitely promoted to higher risk prison.
“Therefore an effective prison system
should provide therapy, rehabilitation and social integrations for the
convicts,” he said. When his records shows improvement the prisons
recommend that such convicts should be put on parole, said the expert.
“Parole is used as a litmus test for the corrective system to test it
whether it’s working or not,” he said.
Another approach to ease prison
congestion is for the social workers at the court to recommend to the
judge that the convict should be sentenced to community service, if the
offence is minor which will also save him from contamination.
“This is a gradual controlled release
where the convict is put under supervision provided by rehabilitation
support and monitoring,” said Nyoka.
Experts concur that this is what is
called an ideal process of rehabilitation under the prison risk
management system which is based on a scientific approach.
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