Prison overcrowding is a common problem in countries around the globe. It is exacerbated in Africa where data from the latest World Prison Brief indicate prison systems in almost 80% of countries on the continent are functioning in excess of capacity. A situation that has continued over the years without change. Governments and their Prison services occasionally reduce pressure on the prison system through pardons, amnesties and special commissions – but such ad hoc activity means that the numbers soon return and the conditions worsen again.
The Prison Audit aims to break this cycle by collecting data on the general population inside a prison and forwarding the names of those who meet the criteria (agreed beforehand) to the court for immediate release, others for prompt hearing to speed up eventual release; and use the data generated to inform bail and sentencing guidelines and policy notes on diversion and parole.
Prison Audits are conducted by paralegals working alongside prison officers and pivot on the formation of a Case Coordination Committee (CCC) local to the prison and made up of police, prosecuting and judicial officers to whom the case data is presented and with whom the officer in charge of the prison can consult when his/her prison threatens to exceed its capacity.
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Adam Stapleton
Director, The Governance and Justice Group, Portugal
Adam Stapleton is a Director of the Governance and Justice Group (GJG) (www.governancejustice.org). Formerly a barrister in criminal practice in London, he has been a Human Rights Officer on UN missions in Cambodia and Rwanda and between 1995-2007 was adviser to Penal Reform International based in Malawi. He has been visiting Professor of Law at Northwestern University in Chicago on two separate occasions and was a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre at Essex University and senior justice adviser to the UK government’s Stabilisation Unit (now Office of Conflict, Security and Mediation – OCSM). In recent years, he has focused on the role of data to inform policy and reform programmes.