The Lira resident Judge Winifred Namisinde has said there is an urgent need for a remand home in Lango sub region to cater for the escalating number of children who get involved in criminal activities.
Justice Namisinde said 60% of cases that come to the High Court from different places in Lango sub region involve juvenile victims.
Namisinde noted that every week, the district high court receives at least one or more juveniles on charges which are of capital nature, as well as lower courts.
She said lack of facilities for keeping these children always forces court to offer them unconditional bail and they return to a hostile community due to the nature of crimes they commit.
Namisinde said there is now an urgent need for a remand home and child keeping centre to cater for the eight districts in Lango sub region; adding that sometimes children are supposed to be kept in custody for their own safety.
“Those who are undergoing trials are sometimes given unconditional bail and they go back to live with people whom they aggrieved and this puts their lives in danger,” she said.
The only remand home in northern Uganda is in Gulu which according to Namisinde is not enough to cater for the increasing number of juvenile criminals in the entire region.
She was addressing prisons and police officers, magistrates and human right activists at Gracious Palace hotel in Lira last week during a workshop organized by African prisons Project (APP) a charity sponsored by Independent Development Fund to promote access to Justice and health care among prisoners in Apac and Oyam. Read more
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