Conditions in African prisons are some of the poorest in the world. High rates of pre-trial detention and the overuse of prison sentences for minor offences contribute to severe overcrowding, with many prisons holding up to twice their official capacity.
Prisons lack sanitation and access to proper medical care, and provide few rehabilitative programmes, educational or vocational opportunities.
Throughout Africa, children are detained for a wide array of petty and status offences, often under the age of criminal responsibility, and alongside adults. Many have no access to legal representation and are denied visits from parents or relatives. Many thousands are living with their mothers in prison.
While there have been no executions for a number of years, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda still retain the death penalty and the risk that executions could be resumed remains.
Since the 1990s, PRI has worked in partnership with criminal justice agencies and civil society in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, primarily to address the overuse of imprisonment, and we resumed our work in the region in 2011. We work with local civil society and other partners in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to promote criminal justice reform and good practice. We promote in particular: