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The Interior Ministry has disclosed of plans to allow inmates across the nation’s prisons access to their relatives and legal counsels as part of efforts to improve the welfare needs of inmates.

The move, according to the sector minister, Mark Woyongo is also to facilitate communication between inmates and their relatives while in custody.

Many have been cited as the challenges facing inmates in the various prisons which some believe have partly contributed to reducing the confidence in the ability of the prisons to reform offenders.

Some of these challenges include; issues of overcrowding, inaccessibility to legal services, among others.

Although some interventions have been put in place by the state and other Civil Society Organisations to address such issues, there is still more to do to improve the situation.


Announcing the new directive which is currently on a pilot basis, Mark Woyongo also indicated that use of the technology will be closely monitored. He however maintained that the mechanism comes at no cost to the government.

“The ministry has signed a contract with MSM communication to introduce telecom services in some selected prisons to facilitate communication between the inmates and their families, friends and lawyers in a controlled manner on a pilot basis at no cost to government,” Mr. Woyongo said.