🎄 TODAY: Virtual Carol Service + 12 Days, 12 Prison Communities 📯

Virtual Carol Service, today!

Join us tonight – Thursday 3rd December at 6pm GMT – for an evening of songs, readings, and shared hope. Through cameras in Canterbury Cathedral and mobile phones behind bars, we stand united together as defenders of the defenceless.

If you miss this moment today, don’t worry. The video will stay live on our website using the same link below.

WATCH THE SERVICE →

12 days, 12 prison communities.

A Christmas campaign to fund the untapped potential behind bars

Prisons are mostly hidden places, unseen and rarely talked about. This Christmas, we want to take you inside 12 of the prison communities where our defenders live and work.

There are stark realities. Like in Kenya, where the prison capacity is 27,000 but the inmate population is 57,000. Or in Uganda, where some women give birth to babies who die on the floors of overcrowded cells.

But there are also stories of hope. And when we remove our bias against prisons, we see untapped potential behind prison walls. From leadership in the prison staff room to determination on death row. And the power of Justice Defenders working within defenceless communities.

In the coming days, we’ll take you inside a few prisons at a time. And we ask that you help fund hope this Christmas through our campaign.

DONATE NOW →

DAY 1

Machakos Main Prison, Kenya

Machakos was the first prison established in the rural eastern region of Kenya by British colonisers in 1929. It sits 64km from the capital, Nairobi.

Ninety years later, the in-house Justice Defenders legal office petitioned the Machakos Court. It sought a 1/3 reduction for all inmates serving determinate sentences, regardless of offence. This was a big win, as it led to the declaration of section 46(1)(ii) of the Prisons Act as unconstitutional for denying remission to prisoners sentenced for robbery with violence.

DAY 2

Kampala Remand Prison, Uganda

Kampala Remand Prison was designed to accommodate 400 inmates, but currently is occupied by close to 1,600 remands (awaiting trial) and convicts with lesser sentences. Many inmates make candles and soap for utilisation around the Luzira Hill area, which sits 10km east of downtown.

In 2008, Alexander McLean and African Prisons Project opened Uganda’s first prison-based library here. It is the most accessible prison-based library, with 6,000 books and sufficient sitting capacity. Four hundred inmates access the library each month.

DAY 3

Thika Main Prison, Kenya

Thika was established in 1954 to hold both convicted and unconvicted offenders. It was later modified to accommodate capital offenders. Though the first batch of these inmates revolted and they were subsequently taken to Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

One convicted Thika inmate now holds an LLB degree from the University of London. He's been so resourceful in drafting appeals and acquittals for clients, supporting awareness sessions, and facilitating paralegal classes. So the prison population has reduced from 900 to 554 in three years.

DAY 4

Kakumiro Farm Prison, Uganda

Kakumiro Farm Prison transitioned to a central government prison in 2008, but still lacks power and piped water. The premises are unfenced, and the facility is 1/3 too small to hold the current population. Inmates are responsible for growing, preparing, and distributing food within the prison.

Justice Defenders will soon bring a digital justice program to Kakumiro. The prison is in a far remote location, so virtual court will help solve the problem of moving inmates long distances to attend their proceedings – a pervasive barrier to justice.

FUND HOPE THIS CHRISTMAS.

DONATE NOW →

© 2020 Justice Defenders

A registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1121764).
And a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 36-4787320).

UK | c/o Bryden Johnson, Kings Parade, Lower Coombe Street, Croydon CR0 1AA
US | 2093 Philadelphia Pike #6214, Claymont, DE 19703

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