Last Friday, the Commissioner General of Prisons, Dr Johnson Byabashaija said that all prisoners providing labour to both private and government projects must be paid in hard cash.

While presiding over the ninth Annual General Meeting of the Uganda Prisons Savings and Credit Cooperative Society at Luzira prison, Dr Byabashaija said that prisoners are not slaves to offer free labour even through they are in prison.

“It is legal for prisoners to work but they must be paid whenever they work depending on their capacities. There is no more slave work in the modern world,” Byabashaija said, warning that officers who fail to comply would be punished.

The payment, according to Dr Byabashaija, is in line with the law signed by the Minister of Internal
Affairs in 2000.
According to the law, skilled labour is supposed to be paid Shs500 per day, semi-skilled labourers Shs200 while the unskilled labour is Shs100.

However, a mini survey done by Journalism.mak.ac.ug from Kampala streets shows that where as the directive is aimed at making a 'brighter' future for prisoners, some people welcomed it while others said its not beneficial to the government and the even those who receive the payment.

Johnson Akankwasa (not real name), who comes from Jinja but is currently working in Kampala, thinks that even though the payment has been put in place, it's still too little to change anyones life after prison.

"I personally believe that the prisoners are still being exploited because what can surely [Shs] 500 do for someone. At the end of the month, it's equivalent to 15000. These prisoners have families to take care of and that little pay cannot pay school fees. Despite the modern times, it's quite a shame," Akankwasa observed.

On the other hand, Silvestre Sabiiti, a second-year student of Journalism and Communication from Makerere University, says that it's a good move that will see prisoners have money in their pockets to cater for their basic needs, once they are out of prison since many of them have families to look after.

However, Apophia Ainembabazi from Wandegeya feels that the work of prisons is correctional and not penal. She adds that because of this, prisoners should be able to work well knowing that they broke laws and a prison is not a source of employment.

"I Just feel some prisoners are worth suffering and should work so that they may not repeat the crimes, because nowadays, people keep doing unlawful stuff since they know they go to prison for a period and come back," Ainembabazi says, before adding that they should even be given a single shilling for whatever work they do.

Derrick Musiime is a tourist guide with Tooro Travellers, a company that provides transport facilities to tourists in Uganda, and he stays in Bukoto. He says that he fully supportems Byabashaija's directive.

"Those people do heavy work and at times they work for long hours without resting. If they are working for free, then that is exactly slavery, and it's not good, because they are also human beings. Being a prisoner doesn't change someone into animal, you remain human like others," Musiime says.

However, Mourice Opolot, who preffered his location to be stated as "from around town", and currenly not working, was rather dismayed by the law, and rose several rhetoric questions.

"Those are tumultuous statements aimed at painting a good image on a rotten system." Opolot says, adding: "Prisoners are dying with controllable and preventable hygiene illnesses. That labour issue is a game, I see it benefiting the prison officials and not anybody.

"How many senior prison warders has he brought to book over alleged thieving of tokens raised from both huge and small farms countrywide? What philosophy guides his utterances? Are these cells correctional facilities or mere torture and enslavement safes? What about the issue of detention without trial?" Opolot wondered.

He, however, remains skeptical about how safe the money, prisoners will be working for, is. He says that there should be a clear process of how prisoners get the jobs and how their money is paid to them, whether in hard cash or to their bank accounts.

Deviating from Opolot's thinking, but in support of Musiime's view, is Derrick Ssenyonga. He says that prisoners were not being paid all along yet they were working like horses.

"If someone wanted to use prisoners to work on their farm or for any labor, they would contact the Officer in Charge (OC) of the station and he/she who would charge a fee and I don't know where it would go, and later release a number of prisoners to go and work. The only demand is, transport and feed them.This is absolutely a good call from Byabasaija," Ssenyonga appreciated.

For Yvonne Waters Nakhaima, who stays in Entebbe, Byabashaija's strategy deserves credit, even though it has loopholes including whether those serving a life sentence will also be paid. "He couldn't have said it any better. Denying them pay after offering their services would indeed be slavery and long gone are the days people had to undergo such a condition of work without pay.

"But I prefer the Kenyan system where one works and the jail term is reduced, plus a presidential pardon. At the end of it, they even ensure after serving your term, you have something to do. For example, if its carpentry they give you the tools so that you can keep using your skill to earn a living at the end of the day," Nakhaima said.

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