June 13th, 2009
The last month was a busy and interesting one. I spent much of my time travelling and exposing APP to new networks.
I began the month in Uganda where we started our strategic planning process. This will enable us to review all the work we have done so far and the results it has achieved. This process will also give us a clear direction for the future and the way in which we wish to develop over the next few years. It will take my two assistant directors, Marcel and Renzo and I several months to consult our varied ‘stakeholders’ including prisoners, prisons staff, other NGOs, donors and not least our own staff, trustees, patrons and volunteers. However, the focus it will give us is invaluable. Currently we see so many needs and we have to strive to get a balance between a very holistic approach, trying to help find solutions to as many of the difficulties we encounter as possible, whilst ensuring that our work is sustainable, replicable and done to the highest standards.
Work at the health centre in Gulu in Northern Uganda is going well, the walls are now up and we look on target for completion in late September or October. We are investing greater time in planning and implementing our other projects now that we have reached a stage in our organisational redevelopment where we have a smoothly functioning office and efficient staff to implement our work.
I spent time at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where I was a delegate at a conference looking at issues surrounding restorative justice. Broadly, this is the concept that the criminal justice system can better involve both the victim and the offender. The intention is to leave victims feeling that they have had a chance to have their say and giving the offender the opportunity to do something meaningful to compensate their victim or reconcile with them, as well as stimulating rehabilitation through encouraging offenders to consider and address the motivations behind their offending. The conference exposed me to a variety of interesting people, including judges, restorative justice practitioners, fellow NGO workers (including an organisation which focuses on rehabilitation of those involved in the civil war in Northern Uganda!) amongst others. I hope the benefits will include the implementation of a programme of American legal professionals coming to Uganda to provide training to their Ugandan counter parts.
I was also able to visit a prison whilst in Texas. It was a surreal experience, a long way away from the prisons I am used to seeing in Africa or even the UK. The deputy officer in-charge proudly showed me a portrait of a blind magistrate who sat in Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in London, hanging in his office. He said that it reminded him that justice should always be blind. He also presented me with a sheriff’s badge and cap! I was able to visit a large amount of the prison, a vast, redbrick edifice, apparently lacking in any open air area apart from the car park. I found the prisons staff to be extremely professional and courteous, but certainly with a no nonsense approach. I was able to speak to a variety of prisoners, including one on death row. I visited the kitchen and tasted inmates’ food and was presented with a freshly baked loaf of bread and a carton of orange juice (label: this beverage contains 0% fruit juice). I was escorted round by a cordial black warder and a pretty Hispanic wardress (no doubt they’re not called that in Texas) who treated the prisoners with respect and went to great pains to explain things in as much detail as possible for me (although this may have been because I told them I worked in Uganda “this is Magistrate McLean, he’s from Africa”.
One of the outcomes of this visit was the initiation of a correspondence programme between inmates on death row in Uganda and those who have been condemned in Texas. It seems that all over the world those who have been sentenced to death are kept in conditions which lead to increased feelings of loneliness and a desire for support and contact with the outside world.
I also spent some time at the United Nations in New York; their interests in prisons in developing countries might prove to provide interesting opportunities for partnership.
I spent some time in Toronto visiting relatives, and Niagara Falls, followed by a short holiday in St Lucia with my family. As I write this I am back in the UK. We have spent time recently recruiting new trustees and volunteers and trying to make provision for a salary and workspace for a yet to be recruited UK employee. When I return to Uganda in a few days time I’ll certainly have plenty of stories to tell my staff and the prisoners we work for…
