This was announced by the RCS Commissioner General, George Rwigamba yesterday when the Ministry of Justice and affiliated institutions were discussing the 2018-2019 Budget Framework Paper with the Parliamentary National Budget and Patrimony Committee.
He said that there is need to beef-up RCS force for greater efficiency. Based on international standards, Rwigamba said that one prison guard protects 20 inmates, or below that number, but, in Rwanda there are no exact numbers because prisons receive many inmates.
“We do not have standardized number because inmates increase against constant numbers of officers. Today, there’s order in correctional facilities because of the way we structured security and services inside prisons with reference to local administration structure,” he explained.
Rwigamba said that though in prisons they have administrative entities like sectors, Cells and villages which help providing quick response to problem that may arise, the small number of guards still affects them.
“This administrative process doesn’t solve the problem of guards shortage, they are very few, they don’t have time to rest based on different services like escorting inmates to court, hospital and in prison’s daily activities. Guards from day shift also return during the night, and that is their daily routine,” he explained.
He said that they are preparing to receive 287 new prison guards in July, but, the number is too low to solve the existing problem.
In December 2017, RCS revealed that Rwandan Prisons had a total of 64,757 inmates with 1694 prison guards.
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