Bururi: prison house overcrowded

Bururi prison (southern Burundi) has a number of detainees that exceeds its capacity, sources say, of 383 prisoners as its capacity is 250. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Prison officials report poor prison conditions. The minister for justice regrets that people are detained abusively. She calls on the prosecution to unclog the prisons.

In Bururi, the overcrowding in the prison is confirmed by judicial sources, local human rights defenders and relatives of detainees.

“The prison, which only has a capacity of 250 people, currently houses 383 detainees. This makes prison conditions very difficult,” they report.

According to judicial sources, the prison has only 117 convicted persons, the rest being defendants.

In Bururi, as in other prisons accross the country, overcrowding is a serious problem which is costing the State, big resources, according to the minister in charge of justice.

“[…] from housing to feeding, to access to health care, all of this is very expensive for the State […]”, announced Dominique Banyankimbona, in his note of October 31.

The authority calls to order those in charge of courts and prosecutors who are causing the increase in the number of detainees in the various prisons by sending people to prison for “minor offences”.

Domine Banyankimbona asks judges to deal quickly with cases related to minor offenses and those of people who have not yet been tried.