Gates Cambridge Trust, Trinity External Research Studentship (Honorary), Smuts Memorial Fund

Imagining modernity in the Uganda Prisons Service, 1945-1979

International Organizations such as the Council of Europe and the United Nations have developed several legal provisions on prisoners’ rights. These liberal rules are intended to improve how various actors handle incarcerated offenders in the criminal justice system. Local legislations have similarly been developed by various countries to protect and safeguard the right of prisoners. This review will examine various international legal provisions and the local statutory requirements available under the Kenyan justice system. In particular, the requirements of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (UNSMR) will be examined and compared to various local legal provisions in the Penal code and the Prisons Act (CAP 90 of the Laws of Kenya). Additionally, the examination will cover some of the challenges that hinder the effective implementation of local and international rules on prisoners’ rights in the Kenyan context.

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Prisoners and the Law: Rethinking Prisoners’ Rights and Implementation Challenges in Kenya’s Justice System

THE United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners have evolved considerably since they were drafted in 1929 by the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission (IPPC). An analysis of the Rules now requires a re-examination of issues which are of basic concern to persons in both the correctional and legal fields. As adopted in 1934 by the Assembly of the League of Nations, the Standard Minimum Rules were originally intended &dquo;to define the minimum rights of persons deprived of liberty by decision of the judicial authorities.&dquo;’ This protective function was never seen, however, as separate from the advancement of certain basic correctional policies. Changes in the acknowledged theories of treatment and rehabilitation, therefore, had to be taken into account by the IPPC, so that a revision of the Rules was undertaken, in recognition of those changes, in 1949. Two years later, the new version, consisting of 94 articles, was submitted to the United Nations.

Rubin Kraiem

Papers

Prisoners' Rights and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Offenders: