Uganda's Kitalya mini-max prison becomes one of the first high-tech prisons the country has ever constructed.
The Construction of the state-of-the-art facility was funded by the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) and constructed by Ambitious Construction Company Limited.
The prison is located in the village of Kitalya, Busujju county, and sitting on 5-acres of land about 55 kilometers in Wakiso District, off of the Kampala-Mityana Road northwest of Luzira Maximum Security Prison.
Kitalya Mini-Max Prison which was concluded in February 2020 is reported to have more than six layers of security, physical, electronic, and 30 cells all fitted with modern sanitary facilities.
The new prison has common dormitory wards, 30 individual cells, and a medical wing with inpatient facilities. It also has a kitchen equipped with energy-saving technology. Other amenities include a contact visitors' room and isolation rooms for contagious diseases.
It has an array of recreational facilities, including a soccer field, a basketball court, a volleyball court, and a tennis court that sits on 5 acres (2 ha) of land, in a rural setting.
However, the Commissioner-General of Uganda Prisons Service Dr. Johnson Byabashaija who has been in this position for over 15 years said it was now ready to receive inmates, the senior staff who are going to operate the prison including Onesmus Bitaliwo, the designated Officer in Charge.
The Shs 25 billion facility has classroom blocks equipped with a computer lab and library, a large workshop block specifically designed and built for prison industry activities.
"This facility was designed by ourselves, We only brought the manager of Plantech [Construction Company Ltd] to help us put our idea on paper and have a facility of this nature...It is called a mini-max because all operations are manual.” Byabashaija said.
According to Dr. Johnson, Its completion is expected to free Luzira upper prison which is chocking with more than 3,000 inmates, holding capacity of 600 inmates therefore it could accommodate up to 10,000 inmates and remain with more space beyond its official capacity of 2,000 inmates.
He also observes that Kitalya mini-max prison is a game-changer in the war against prison congestion.
David Nsalasata, the Director of Production at the Uganda Prison Service noted that they bench-marked from different prison jurisdictions in different countries to come up with the facility.
He added that Kitalya has over 100 CCTV camera points and a control room with 24 hour on-site and off-site surveillance, layers of barbed wire fences around the entire facility, canine, and human security.
JLOS senior technical adviser Rachel Odoi Musoke said the facility focuses more on human rights with its industry workshops with a goal to rehabilitate prisoners and make them better citizens.
“Kitalya is a landmark project which focuses on human rights, giving the country confidence to do better facilities. Its establishment marks the beginning of the end of congestion in prisons,” she said.
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