EDITORIAL: Correctional authorities should show trust in public

When Steven Baribwirumuhungu escaped from Mpanga Prison soon after he had been transferred from Muhanga Prison where he was serving a 20-year jail term for murder, it was a disaster in motion. Baribwirumuhungu slaughtered a woman and her five children, apparently, in fear that the people who had been sheltering him would betray him and alert authorities. He did not want to return to jail. He would have done anything to avoid being rearrested and so would have gone on a killing spree of anyone who suspects him. Luckily, we can say, he was arrested after the horrendous Ruhango family murder. Otherwise chances of repeated offence would be as close as the sun setting after dusk. Baribwirumuhungu is just a bitter example among many other cases of inmates escaping various correctional facilities in the country and settling quietly among the unsuspecting communities. But such people are very dangerous, not so much as Baribwirumuhungu’s heinous acts in Ruhango prove. It is human nature that no single inmate would want to be caught again. No one wants to return to jail. Not after escaping, for one thing, it attracts more punishment when caught. A criminal who does not want to return to jail will stop at nothing to evade re-arrest. Killing is nothing as long as it is a means to survive another jail life. It is also a fact that by escaping, such criminals avoided completing their reformation education and are, therefore, not ready for public life. The correctional facilities are designed to ensure that inmates are reformed enough so that by the time they are released to public life, their past would be behind them. However, reports that the Rwanda Correctional Services does not alert the public of runaway inmates is a disservice to public good. The inmates are not fitted with tracking devices so that the RCS can think it can work solo to re-arrest them. Ours is a community that prides in cooperating with the system to fight crime. The success of these efforts, including community policing and anti-drug campaigns, have been enshrined in the trust security apparatus have for the public. There is no more time where this trust is more valuable than in hunting down prison break inmates on the loose.

Opinions

EDITORIAL: Correctional authorities should show trust in public