In 2010, PRAWA commenced the Prison Reforms Intervention in Africa (PRIA) Project as a 3-Year Project with support from the Dutch Government in six African countries namely Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The main purpose of this project is to promote effective and sustainable prison reforms in Africa which is in compliance with international and regional human rights standards and good governance, and to improve the human rights situation of those in prison custody.

The project is designed to have three main components namely: Country-based, Continental and International components and to be implemented in two phases. They are Baseline Survey and Follow-up activities within the three project components.

The Baseline survey is the first phase of the project and it involves an assessment of practices and situations in prisons in the six targeted countries. It was implemented from April 2010 to May 2011.

The second phase of the project, driven by the recommendations from the Baseline survey, aims at achieving the project’s major objective. It involves Training, support for development and implementation of practical interventions towards the improvement of prison conditions.

On 6th July, 2012 PRAWA held In-country Intervention Planning and Capacity Building Sessions for Prison Officers in Kenya and In-country Activities in Zambia from 9th to 13th July 2012.

The objective of the sessions include: Training of Prison Officers in the ICT Department at the Kenya and Zambia Prisons Services on Web design and maintenance, development of effective and sustainable data management system within the two countries’ Prisons Service., establishment of mechanisms for the provision of prisoners’ mental health care skills for the Kenyan Prisons Service medical and social welfare Staff.

This was done on 6th July 2012 followed by prison inspection visits in both countries. That was meant to ascertain the current conditions, of their prisons and share information on existing best practices.