With an opening ceremony on the 11th of June 2013, a 2-day African Regional Workshop on Prison Health and Management of Special Needs Offenders commenced. The meeting began with an address by the Director General of Senegal Prisons Service, Mr. Cheikh Tidiane Diallo, who welcomed everyone to Senegal. He said that “in Africa and the world at large, Prisons face numerous challenges including, but not limited to over-population, long awaiting trial periods, and challenges in the management of special needs offenders and to effectively solve these problems, it is necessary for all States to work together in order to ensure the achievement of proper and efficient management of prisons”. Furthermore, he highlighted that the workshop which has brought together 16 Heads of Prisons in Africa will provide an opportunity for experience sharing and for the exchange of good prison practices. He thanked PRAWA and various partners of African Prisons administration for their unrelenting effort towards the achievement of comprehensive and sustainable penal reform.

Mr. Peter Van Der Sande, the President of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA), provided a brief history of the ICPA, its role within Africa and the importance of the PRIA project and the African Regional Workshop on Prison Health and Management of Special Needs offenders in the achievement of the ICPA objectives within the African continent. The Nigeria Minister of Interior and Commissioner Med Kaggwa, the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Places of Detention at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights where special guests of honour at the opening ceremony. Their remarks not only highlighted the dire situation of prisons in Africa but also emphasized that impacts made by initiatives like the PRIA project through the African Regional Workshop should not only be applauded but encouraged.

While briefly introducing the PRIA project, Dr. Uju Agomoh, the Executive Director of PRAWA, said that it was a great privilege for her and PRAWA to be part of the event. In her opinion the participation of professionals and experts from all over the world and various Criminal Justice disciplines, spoke of the very essence of Human Rights and the respect for the dignity of prisons and prisoners who seem to be ignored in many jurisdictions. She expressed her belief that everyone has a contribution to make towards the penal sector reform, as well as her concern on the poor funding made available to Prisons in many jurisdictions. As a result of this, she emphasized on the need for policy makers to understand the importance of adequate facilities both within and outside prisons for effective rehabilitation of inmates and ex-offenders. She explained that the PRIA project’s implementing organization, PRAWA, recognised the need to have in-country support to various prisons in Africa by considering their common and even diverse history, challenges and successes. In addition to the in-country support, the project utilizes cross-sectoral cooperation and the documentation of best practices in order to facilitate the use of whatever little resources African prisons might have to effect the expected change within the continent’s penal system.

The Secretary, of the African Correctional Services Association (ACSA), Mr. Lloyd Chilundika expressed the gratitude of both the Zambia Prisons Service and ACSA to be given an opportunity to participate in such an event. He explained that Africa bears the burden of the various challenges faced within its prisons including poor public perception and participation in prison-related issues. In his opinion, although imprisonment is a very harsh punishment and it seems to be used as the first, rather than the last resort in various African countries. He added that there was need to explore other options that can achieve the same result of effective offender rehabilitation. He concluded by thanking the various partner organizations of the workshop.

The opening ceremony of the workshop was concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr. Olusola Ogundipe, Vice President-ICPA and a keynote address by the Senegal Minister of Justice, Mme Aminata who also declared the workshop officially open.
The opening ceremony of the workshop was followed by the formal opening of the Senegal Prison fair from which three (3) Prisons in Senegal emerged winners of cash prizes. The 2-day workshop featured nine (9) different panel discussions on topics relating to African prison Health and special needs offenders management.

The speakers on the first panel were Dr. John Gannon, the Executive Director, International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology, Dr. Uju Agomoh, Executive Director, PRAWA, and John Kennedy Odipo the Assistant Director of Probation and After Care Service in Kenya. This panel analyzed the system of mental health care in Prisons, as well as the system of processing persons with mental disability within the criminal justice system and the community at large.

The second panel’s discussion began with the presentation of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights Pre-Trial Detention Guidelines by a representative of the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum, Mr. Ababacar Ndiaye. The panel which focused specifically on Pre-Trial Justice, Torture and Health conditions in Prisons and Detention Centers featured presentations from Dr. Ghislain Patrick Lessene, a Senior Legal Adviser at the African Law Library and Ms. Elizabeth Kumbong Amaazee, a bilingual Publications and Communications Fellow at the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa

Through the presentation of Dr. Ebab Salah, the third panel’s discussion was an experience sharing session where participants were given the opportunity to learn from the work of the United Nations Office on Drugs Control (UNODC) in the fight against HIV/AIDs in African Prisons. The forth panel discussion focused on Terrorism and Radicalization within African Prisons.The fifth panel discussion was on Gender, Women’s Rights and Prison Health Conditions. The presenters at this session examined the topic within the Sierra-Leonean and Zambian context.

With various case studies, research reports and analysis of international, regional and national legal instruments, the sixth panel’s discussion focused on the management of Juveniles and Children in Conflict with the Law. Also, using their experiences within the prisons system, prison officers from Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, and Burundi, as well as a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) explored the issue of effective provision of Health Care for Inmates and Staff of Prisons and Correctional Services.

The concluding sessions of the workshop were aimed at evaluating the Prison Reform Intervention in Africa (PRIA) project with Mr. Serges Demefack discussing the research methodologies and results acquired during the development of the project’s baseline reports, and Dr. Uju Agomoh focusing on the achievements of the projects, the follow-up interventions in the pilot countries and best practices collated so far which can be replicated in various prisons across Africa.