The Centre for Hope and Life in and After Prison Initiative Uganda (CHALAPI-UG) opened the first halfway house in the district on Wednesday. The home was in Kasese.
The centre offers victims of torture and ex-prisoners psychological support and life skills.
The actors argued that whereas prisons are supposed to be correctional centres, they lack facilities and personnel, thus turning them into mere punishment areas.
They say that the number of repeat offenders is going up, which is something that should worry the government and all other leaders.
The executive director of CHALIPA, Geoffrey Kule Kiwede, said that the goal of the rehabilitation process is to make ex-prisoners less likely to commit crimes by changing their attitudes, ways of thinking, and social relationships.
He told URN that it is important for the government to work with different stakeholders in the private, public, and NGO sectors to help ex-convicts and parolees get jobs and successfully reintegrate into society so that they can be change agents.
Kiwede said that such centres offer life skills such as carpentry, art, and craft making so that ex-prisoners and torture victims can start on a new life and be less prone to being used by the wrong elements.
Rev. Solomon Badaki, a youth counselor and the human resource manager at Kaganda Rural Development Centre, said that inmates have needs that start with psychological and mental health, and for those who stay in prison for a long time, there is an erosion of existing knowledge, information, and life skills.
He therefore thinks that it is important that the government puts up rehabilitation centres around all prison facilities and also supports actors that are working towards integrating ex-prisoners into normal community lives.
Annet Birungi, working with Save the Children, said that many of the people in prison who suffer psychological torture lack the resources to receive the necessary treatment to overcome the effects of incarceration on their lives and their general wellbeing.
She also said that when most young people get out of jail, they stop going to school and end up becoming repeat offenders.
The Rev. Nelson Isebagheni, a chaplain at Kagando hospital, told URN that it is very important for the government to help rehab centers grow so that mental health problems, especially among young people, can be fixed.
He said drug addiction is on the rise and victims need to be helped if they are to be part of the national development.
Tony Blaker and his friends who help the CHILAPI rehabilitation center said that when ex-convicts leave prison, they often don’t have any friends to help them mentally. This makes it easy for them to be persuaded to do criminal acts or recruited by other criminals.
He said that if a society wants to break the cycle of crime, it should put rehabilitating criminals at the top of its list of priorities.
Benjamin Masereka, who was imprisoned in 2006 after leading a school strike, said he abandoned school after being released and joined a bad peer group that almost ruined his life.
However, he says his life changed after joining a rehabilitation centre, where he is currently serving as a craft master.
The Uganda prison service has two directorates; the administration and the correctional services, with the latter running custodial services, rehabilitation, and reform departments.
However, reform services remain on a lower scale across prisons.