A TALE OF TWO PRISONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000953 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM CG SUBJECT: A TALE OF TWO PRISONS ¶1. Summary. Prisons in the DRC are barely functional. The directors of the Bukavu and Kinshasa prisons say their biggest challenges include crumbling buildings, overcrowding, lack of food and medical care, and no salaries. End summary. -------------- -------------- Bukavu Prison: Where the Director Lives in a Cell -------------- -------------- ¶2. The Central Prison of Bukavu, in the South Kivu provincial capital, was built in 1928 and has not been rehabilitated since. PolOff and DRL Human Rights Officer visited it June 28. Walls and roofs sometimes fall on detainees, and the toilets quit functioning years ago. The prison has a capacity of 700, but many sections, including those for minors, are no longer being used as detention facilities. Instead, police use cells as offices, and the prison director and his family of nine share two cells in the former European cell block. The 489 prisoners share a dozen large chambers in which they are grouped by gender. Nearly two thirds of those in the prison are in pre-trial detention and have not gone before a judge. ¶3. Prison Director Emmanuel Amisi told us the prison had not had a food budget since 1987. The detainees survive on donations from family and churches. When donations are sufficient, prisoners are fed once per day at 10 a.m. Amisi said he has allowed detainees to gather wood for cooking from a nearby forest, but some have escaped in the process. The prison has little medicine, and none for the most common illnesses, such as malaria. There is no prison vehicle to transfer prisoners to the hospital, no money to pay for their care, and no personnel to guard them during their hospitalization. ¶4. Amisi and the police and soldiers who serve as guards at the prison are essentially volunteers. None have been paid in more than two years. Amisi and his family live at the prison not only because he cannot pay for lodging in town but because he has repeatedly received death threats blaming him for prison escapes. -------------- -------------- Kinshasa Prison: Something to Eat, but Little Else -------------- -------------- ¶5. The Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Center of Kinshasa (CPRK) is newer and larger than the prison in Bukavu. Built in 1958, it has eleven wings and a capacity of 1,500 detainees. The actual population, however, is 4,057, over half of which are military. Although women and children are held separately from men, military and civilian populations are mixed, as are pre-trial detainees and already convicted prisoners. Prison Director Dido Kitungwa told us July 3 that most of that of 213 prisons in the DRC, only three are military. Fewer than 100 of the prisons are functioning; the rest are essentially in ruins. ¶6. CPRK is the only Congolese prison with a budget for food. A local NGO provides water to sustain a small garden within the institution, but a prisoner told us that food is insufficient. Families supplement the meager prison food supply. (Note: A riot broke out in the prison in 2006 when family visits were temporarily halted. End note.) Sanitation is substandard, and Kitungwa told us prisoners are sick "all the time." For example, in the women's quarter, which houses 127 women and infants, there are four toilets. Kitungwa said the women often suffer from skin and vaginal infections and typhoid. As in Bukavu, the prison has no cars to transport the sick to hospitals and no regular visits by doctors. ¶7. Although Kitungwa receives a small salary, most of the guards are not paid regularly. This makes them vulnerable to corruption, according to Kitungwa The prison has only 50 staff, and most are not trained. The more than 3,000 visitors each day go directly into the cells to visit prisoners, and attempted rapes and assaults are regularly reported. ¶8. Kitungwa told us he was well aware of international norms and standards for prisons but could not apply them due to overcrowding. He said the Netherlands planned to provide funding to rehabilitate Ndolo, the military prison in Kinshasa and hoped that all 2,000 soldiers currently incarcerated at CPRK could be moved there. He lamented the lack of donor interest in prisons because "problems with prisons lead to problems with impunity." KINSHASA 00000953 002 OF 002 -------------- Comment: Nothing to Hide, Everything to Gain -------------- ¶9. Prisons in the DRC are in such deplorable condition that penitentiary employees are eager to show-and-tell to any potential international donor that visits. They open cell doors and invite prisoners to tell their stories. Budgets are clearly inadequate to realize any significant improvements. Charged with the care of society's lowest rung, the best chance prison directors have is to plead for assistance along with their detainees. End comment. MEECE