Survivor's Reentry Guide Uganda - Jonathan Mugerwa Prison Diaries
by Jonathan Mugerwa
(Kampala , Uganda , Africa +256780555355)
Jonathan Mugerwa at the Metal Fabrication Center Of Buena Charity Services
I had the End in the Start of my Imprisonment in 2005. My Reentry into the outside community started on the day of my imprisonment. I had to get out with new skills and a positively changed approach and attitude to life's challenges. Coming out with the previous skills and habits meant Recidivism.
I knew where I was coming from and where I was going.
With the family left behind , weeping without the essential needs, they were not sure of the future. Property was left without any care.
It was a beginning of all types of deaths:
Spiritual Death
Economic Death
Social Death
And Physical Death by the Death Penalty.
The challenge ahead was coming out alive with good health and a positive mind.
This involved ensuring cleanliness, good behavior and good conduct as I related with other inmates.
There is no constructive meaning of creating and maintaining an enemy in prison settings. All people should stay at peace with fellow prisoners and the staff.
The Correctional Code and Open Door Policy
Huge thanks to the Commissioner General of Prisons (CGP) for introducing and re-enforcing the Correctional Code which replaced the Punitive one and its negative consequences.
The CGP completed the correctional code with the Open Door Policy that allows in visiting teams every day. The policy created a conducive environment for all healing games to played with the inmates inside the Maximum Security prison gates.
Counselors were now free to come in and share with the inmates regarding financial , health, spiritual and family problems.
Education ministers and workshop facilitators harmonized Learning inside the prison walls.
In fact, this new Correctional Code and open door policy has continued to put the Rehabilitation of Uganda prisons ahead of other prisons in the world.
Uganda today, requires a citizen to have the following:
National Identification Card from NIRA
A brand new Mobile Phone and SIM CARD
A valid driving Permit - Ministry of Works
Valid Passport/Travel Document
A safe and secure housing facility
Membership to a meaningful recreational ground
A convenient bank account and Mobile money account
An attachment to a college or University
A member Church
A convenient shopping center
A convenient medical and counseling centers
Transportation route (Bus, Taxi, Bodaboda, Ferry/Ship and Train)
Convenient restaurant
A brilliant serving inmate who is about to Down-Time should day to day focus on how he will be able to comply with the above basic requirements as he resettles into the changed society.
For further information regarding guidance to Reentry of the formally incarcerated people Contact Jonathan Mugerwa CEO BUENA CHARITY SERVICES UGANDA. +256780555355 or Fill
out the form on this page.Buena Charity Services Uganda offers guidance and orientation on reentry in Uganda, to formally incarcerated individuals.
Our activities include:
Prison visits/tours
Counseling Services to Inmates and people with a history of Incarceration
Half-Home for freshly released individuals
Visiting families of the incarcerated
Education services to the formally incarcerated and their children
We participate in research programs on Education Justice projects