Category: Justice

Overcrowding at Juba Central Prison has forced the authorities to suspend conjugal visits as inmates sleep while standing due to the lack of space, according to the Director.

A conjugal visit is a scheduled period in which an inmate of a prison or jail is permitted to spend several hours or days in private with a visitor.

The visitor is usually their legal spouse.

According to the Prison’s regulation, conjugal visits are meant for inmates with long jail terms of 30 or 10 years as long as he or she fulfills some conditions.

These include providing a marriage certificate and passing a medical test to avoid transmission of sexual diseases.

If a prisoner violates these, he or she loses the privilege in accordance with section 101 of South Sudan prison bylaws.

Despite these rights, Lieutenant General Atok Atem Barac Director of Juba National Prison says the facility is constrained by lack of space to grant inmates conjugal rights.

“Prison Regulations Section 101 allows family visitation, but despite that, there is a problem represented in the narrowness of the place, which cannot even accommodate the inmates to sleep, ” he said

General Barac says the number of inmates today in the facility is 2,912 while the prison was built to accommodate 500 inmates only.

“If only there were humanitarian organizations that would intervene and build three rooms that would allow these prisoners to exercise their natural (conjugal) rights to human beings and enjoy some privacy, he appealed

He added that due to the overcrowding, inmates are sleeping while standing or sitting.

“Now there are more than 2,000 prisoners inside, and the shop has become so crowded that you cannot sleep. I can only sit. Or sleep standing up.

 

The U.S. and U.K. Embassies have renewed calls on the transitional Government of South Sudan to conduct a credible investigation into the death of Christopher Allen.

Christopher Allen was killed six year ago while working as a journalist covering clashes between the SPLA government forces and (SPLA-IO).

The government of South Sudan has not yet published an official investigation into the death of Allen, despite international pressure on the government to identify and hold to account the culprits behind his killing.

After six year of his death, US and UK embassies say Mr. Allen’s family, friends, and colleagues deserve answers.

In a joint press stated today, call for a credible investigation and accountability is about more than just Mr. Allen’s case—it is about the right of journalists to work in safety and about ending impunity for violence and crimes against them.

They also requested government to make the results public, and to ensure accountability.