Uganda's Prison Farms

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

'He was using prisoners like oxen for ploughing for his own gain'. An ex-convict in Uganda recalls the prison officer in charge of the prison farm he worked on. Uganda has one of the most overcrowded prison systems in Africa. It also has one of the continent’s most developed systems of prison labour.

Ed Butler reports from Uganda where most of the country’s 54,000 inmates are now serving an economic purpose, working for the benefit of an elite collection of private farmers and other business interests – even though half of them have not been convicted of any crime. He speaks to current and former prisoners to find out how the system works, and asks: is the country breaking its international pledges on prisoner treatment?

Presented and produced by Ed Butler.

(Image: Prisoners at Patongo Prison, Uganda. Credit: David Brunetti)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading this edition of assignment from the BBC World Service.
0:05.2	When I first heard this story that Uganda's convicts were being forced to work,
0:11.2	I thought, well in a way that's fair enough it's not unique to this country and
0:15.2	it is part of paying back the debt to society but actually what I found in Uganda does seem a little bit different in a way.
0:23.7	This isn't just a story about hardship that the prisoners there have to endure.
0:28.0	It's also a troubling account of what some say is a racket, a system literally designed for a small number of people to profit personally
0:37.0	and to keep many more poor Ugandans behind bars. See what you think.
0:44.0	Heading down a broken pitted track to a remote corner of Northwest Uganda close to the shores of Lake Albert.
0:55.0	I've come to a large farm.
0:59.0	It's run by Patrick Alobo and his son Gracious.
1:02.0	It covers two or three square kilometers.
1:06.0	You've got cassava you've got maize you've got what else?
1:10.4	We have cabbages we have onions. onions.
1:13.0	It's amazing, beautiful rich land.
1:15.0	Around here, yeah?
1:16.0	Yeah, good land.
1:17.0	The land is good.
1:18.0	It's really fertile.
1:19.0	You're a rich man.
1:21.0	Yeah. I'm a poor man. I'm a poor man.
1:25.0	I'm a poor man.
1:28.0	Rich enough though to pay the local penitentiary to supply teams of prisoners to work in his fields.
	...

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