Prisoners’ Rights in Tanzania: MPs suggest conjugal visitation for our prisoners!

Kiangiosekazi Wa-Nyoka

The question of prisoners practising same sex while in prison was raised again in the ongoing parliamentary session when members of parliament were debating on the Minister of Home Affair's submission for the financial year 2012/13.

If you may remember sometimes in May the Parliamentary Standing Committee on HIV/AIDS that visited some of the prisons felt that excessive overcrowding of prisons could be the reason behind the thriving habit of unimaginable free sex in prison institutions.

According to the Deputy Chairperson of that Committee Honourable Rosweeter Kasuikila, the committee was touched with the appalling overcrowding where in one prison; a room with capacity holding of 40 prisoners was keeping 183 over and above its capacity.

They also found that remand prisoners staying for long periods in prisons needed to have contacts with their wives/husbands. However, they confirmed that due to their lust for sex, inmates are forced to practise same sex amongst themselves. This time, a Member of Parliament Honourable Msabaha suggested that prisoners should be allowed to have privacy with their spouses in what we professionally term it as "conjugal visitations."

In the normal way, this legislator was seen to be out of place just as in the same way someone would propose issuance of condoms to inmates. These proposals are outright opposed to our cultural values. With sodomy, a part of being a taboo, it is against the laws of this country.

All those two proposals, conjugal visits and issuance of condoms are not strange in correctional administration but in our case, it is unimaginable. However, not far from here, we have countries like Angola providing conjugal services to their inmates while South Africa, Mozambique and Lesotho do provide condoms to inmates.

They are convinced that though they would not like to accept it but it remains to be a fact that same sex practice does take part in prisons. Worse of it, this could be one source of spreading HIV/AIDS pandemic in prisons. They argue, "Should we allow HIV/AIDS pandemic to spread in our prisons at the facade of law?" This amounts to ostrich principle, burying the head in the sand living the whole body outside!

The conjugal issue is yet another controversial issue that could be ascribed as a luxury associated with the so called human rights. Inversely corrections have assumed new dimensions in terms of rights and privileges. With the advent of Human Rights culture, these privileges sometimes raise eyebrows to the taxpayer who is supposed to finance them. Are we ready to finance the conjugal visitation as it is done in other countries? Definitely this is not our priority. How can we go for conjugal services while we cannot adequately provide food for our prisoners? The prison ration is calculated at an average of one prisoner spending Tsh. 2,500 (about 2 USD) per day.

Undoubtedly the correctional fraternity has long-since valued the preservation of stable family and community ties as part of rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders. Research has shown that a strong community support system is a vital element in the successful transition of offenders from incarceration back into community.

Arguably, the most important correctional tool to assist offenders in maintaining stable family relations is a visitation programme that allows for meaningful interaction with the significant persons in their lives. Visitation privileges have been linked to increased positive adjustment while incarcerated and lower recidivism rates upon release.

While many developed countries have adopted conjugal visitation programmes to further promote family relations however it has not been found that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and financial cost to prison administrators, families of offenders and community.

However conjugal visitation is mostly advocated to assist the offender in maintaining strong family bonds yet the usefulness of the programme in promoting this goal has not been clearly established.

Conjugal visitation may be more beneficial to maintaining already functional families than addressing the needs of a dysfunctional family, which is often the case for families of incarcerated individuals. While disputable, the majority of programmes tend to place undue emphasis on the sexual aspect of relationship rather than promoting emotionally healthy relations, such as when families are involved in communal family visitation.

Clearly, conjugal visitation increases the risk of spreading sexually transmitted diseases by already identified high-risk population. While the prison administrator can provide education and means to practice safe sex, there is in inherent inability to ensure adherence to safe sex practices. Conjugal visitation requires administrators to give careful consideration on the legal liabilities in fostering sexual interaction among potentially infected offenders.

The most persuasive arguments against the implementation of the conjugal visitation is the disinclination of the public to accept programme that provide extra privileges to convicted felons at the cost to the taxpayer.

Honourable Msabaha specifically talked much on remand prisoners who spend long time in prisons; unfortunately such programmes of conjugal visits are not meant for those on the awaiting trial. It is for the already convicted prisoners as this is taken as part of their rehabilitation.

However it is encouraging that our members of parliament are very much conversant with the rights and privileges of inmates and hope not to hear again from them equating prisons to three star hotels.

That thinking of our members of parliament goes together with the modernity of the Tanzania Prisons Service, moving into a new phase of Correctional Science. In the same vein, hopefully in future they will come with a proposal of weekend imprisonment in collaboration with judiciary as an extra measure of alternative to imprisonment in dealing with overcrowding of prisons. Let's hope for that to come.

Daily News (Published on Saturday, 28 July 2012 at 02:38 hours):
http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/columnists/columnists/7952-mps-suggest-conjugal-visitation-for-our-prisoners