Didé Foundation has been working with Rwandan prisons since 20 years ago. They work in children rights protection in prisons and prisoners’ mental problems.
In the research conducted on 757 inmates from six prisons, 50.7% have mental disorders.
The research revealed that 30% have extreme depression, 14.5% have trauma, 7.8% have fear, 9.9% have mental-sexual related disorder among others.
The research was conducted on 44 women, 550 men and 163 children.
While launching the findings of the research on Wednesday, the coordinator of Didé Foundation, Odette Mukansoro said that it is important to help those with problems to overcome them.
“For Rwandans, it is not worse, many people have mental disorders. For those in prisons, it depends on the crime one committed. If a person is serving long sentence, the more they spend years in prison, the more they develop mental disorders,” she said.
“The way forward is to collaborate with institutions in charge of mental health and see how we can improve the number of people in charge of mental health in prisons,” she added.
The Commissioner General of Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS), George Rwigamba said that more efforts need to be invested so that identified problems could be addressed.
“The research was not conducted among all prisoners, but sampling was done; we have over 60,000 inmates in all prisons, well, it is understandable that when people are imprisoned many of them get traumatized, but when they are counseled, after certain period, they calm down. We should put in place some measures to reduce such trauma,” he said.
The Chairperson for National Human Rights Commission, Madeleine Nirere said that particular attention should be given to specific categories such that those who need medical assistance and those who need counseling are accorded the respective support.
“Women and children have particular problems. A woman who left children at home always thinks about her home, they need counseling. A person should be responsible of crime consequences, but it is essential to help them end the sentence,” she said.
She said that it is essential to train prison staffs on good practices in handling a person with mental disorders.
Last year’s RCS statistics show that there are 64,757 inmates in Rwandan prisons, among who 28,806 are genocide crimes related convicts.
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