Ethiopia : sleeping in turns

Kumsa Gutteta. There are about 131 prison facilities across Ethiopia’s 12 regions, not including police detention centres, of which there are thousands. At the federal level, there are 6 prisons, the rest falling under regional jurisdiction. Oromia has the largest number of facilities with about 38, followed by the Amhara region with about 31. Each region runs its own prison commission with its own laws and budget, and the Federal Prison Proclamation only applies to federal institutions. About 135,000 people are currently detained across these facilities. Recent reports indicate that around half a million people pass through the Ethiopian prison system every year.

Extreme overcrowding is one of the most critical issues, and when I say extreme, I weigh my words. The Yirgalem prison, located in the Sidama region, was built 80 years ago to accommodate 600 people. It has never been expanded or renovated, and it currently holds about 4,200 people. I don’t know if people realize what that means. In this prison, one room designed for 60 people currently holds about 270 people. There is no space left, not in the corridors, not on the floor, and people take turns sleeping because there is nowhere else to lie down.

Access to drinking water or sanitation is also a daily struggle. In Gurage prison, the daily water ration is 2 litres per incarcerated person for both washing and drinking. In Adama prison, located 80 kilometres from Addis Ababa, there is no water at all. The government tries to allocate 3 liters per day but that water is not even clean drinking water. In some prisons, families bring water themselves.

KG. The structural causes are multiple. The first one is the absence of alternatives to imprisonment: anyone who commits a crime, whether serious or petty, is sent to prison. There are no non-custodial measures such as community service, diversion, or probation. In the meantime, the general population has grown enormously. In the 1950’s, Ethiopia had fewer than 20 million people, whereas today it has more than 120 million people, but prison facilities have not expanded accordingly.

Almost 70% of Ethiopia’s population is youth, most of whom are unemployed or unskilled, and in situation of precarity. This fuel the prison population, as most people are incarcerated for economic crimes, especially women who are primarily detained for theft or robbery.

Prisons also receive very little attention from authorities. Among the four branches of the justice system (justice, prison, police, and courts), prison receives the least attention and the least budget.

KG. Juveniles are one of the most concerning cases. As there are no community-based correction or rehabilitation centres, children from the age of 12 are sent to adult prisons with no segregation of any kind, and they face daily physical or sexual violence from incarcerated adults.

Children living with their incarcerated parents is another alarming issue. Prison law states that children can stay with their parents for two years, but in practice they stay for as long as their parents do. If a parent is sentenced to 20 years, the child stays 20 years. There is no separation, no specific unit, no playing area, no access to education.

These children have not committed any crime, yet they are treated as such, in facilities that are already severely overcrowded. At the federal level, an incarcerated parent receives only the budget allocated for one person, 35 Ethiopian birr per day (equaling to 0.19 €). There is no national law specifically taking into consideration the treatment of these children.

Women in prison face a different set of challenges, equally serious and equally ignored. They represent around 6 % of the total prison population, and most rehabilitation programmes and services do not take them into account. Their specific needs go unaddressed, particularly in terms of sanitary facilities. The prison administration does not provide sanitary towels or even soap, and women face significant stigma as a result.

KG. The conflicts directly affected prison infrastructure across the country. In the Tigray region, all 9 prison facilities were fully damaged. In the Amhara region, about 12 of the 31 prisons were damaged or looted, and none of them were renovated. As a result, incarcerated people were transferred to other facilities, worsening overcrowding everywhere.

Prison facilities are among the first targets during these conflicts. Most people held there are young men, and their release represents a potential pool of recruits. Buildings, water systems, healthcare facilities, living quarters, almost everything was stripped or destroyed.

KG. Reintegration is one of the most critical gaps. Only 18 % of people in detention currently have access to rehabilitation services.

People leave prison with nothing, no skills, no support structure nor prospects. Some reoffend; others migrate, pushed out by discrimination and the absence of any real opportunity. When we speak with international partners, we say the same thing every time: if you want to address the root causes of migration, you must invest in what happens inside these walls.

A law on alternatives to imprisonment is also important. Today, anyone who commits a crime, however minor, goes to prison. There is no diversion, no community service, or probation. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa have long had these mechanisms in place. A law specifically dedicated to alternatives to imprisonment is still pending. A proclamation has been drafted after years of discussion with the Ministry of Justice and sent to the Council of Ministers but not yet adopted. In the meantime, a new criminal procedure law was recently enacted, which already addresses alternatives to imprisonment, reintegration upon release, the segregation of juveniles and the treatment of children in detention. Centre for Justice contributed to its passage. The legal foundation exists, what remains now is implementation, and convincing authorities that this system deserves genuine attention and a real budget.