Prisons still have a long way to go to eliminate the soil bucket system

Uganda Prisons Services has eliminated the soil bucket system from 58 prison facilities to only 9 last years, URN has learnt. The soil bucket system is where inmates ease themselves in buckets in their cells due to lack of toilet facilities.

The Uganda Prison Service, spokesperson Frank Baine, says they are working on total elimination of the soil bucket system from the remaining 9 prison facilities, saying the method is degrading and unhygienic.

Baine says they have already procured materials to put up toilets in the nine facilities and expects the work to be finalized in December this year. He says they have channeled the money for the construction of the toilets directly to the officers in charge of the affected prisons so as to expedite the process.

A former inmate, who spoke to URN on conditions of anonymity, says some inmates use the buckets to bully and punish new comers to their cells, adding that a complete elimination of the system would change the experiences in prisons.

In the past, Uganda Human Rights Commission recommended the complete elimination of the soil bucket, saying it is degrading.

-URN