By Tugume Johnbosco
MASINDI. 35,000 court cases have been settled under the Plea Bargaining initiative, Chief Justice Bart Katureebe has revealed.
A plea bargain is an agreement between a defendant/suspect and a prosecutor in which the accused accepts to plead guilty or “no contest” in exchange for a lenient sentence or be relieved of one or more charges. After this stage a specific sentence acceptable to the suspect is recommended to the judge.
The scheme was introduced in 2014 to help in decongesting prison facilities and reduction of case backlog in courts. Launching the initiative at Masindi Prison on Monday, Chief Justice Katureebe said Plea Bargaining is achieving its intended objective, given the high reduction in court case backlog.
The Chief Justice asked inmates to embrace the scheme, emphasizing however, that it should be out of individual will, coercion. Justice Katureebe said he is on a countrywide tour of Prison facilities to ascertain problems affecting inmates and how they can be addressed. He noted that the Judiciary still grapples with delayed dispensation of justice, due to limited number of judges. He said the problem is being addressed through recruitment of more judges.
Meanwhile Assistant Commissioner of Prisons Samuel Akena, said the ever growing number of inmates in Uganda’s prison facilities is triggering accommodation, feeding and treatment challenges. He revealed that as of May 2019, Uganda had 57, 800 inmates in the various prison facilities. He said Masindi prison alone, which has capacity to accommodate only 266 inmates is currently hosting 1487.
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