Prisons
Ethiopia's prison system consists of three federal prisons, 117 regional prisons, and many unofficial prisons. Prison and pretrial detention center conditions remained harsh and life threatening. Severe overcrowding was a problem. In September 2007 it was reported that there were 52,000 persons in prison. Earlier that year, prison populations decreased by 10,000 due to pardons but reportedly again increased due to increases in ethnic conflict and economic crimes.
Prison conditions have been reported as unsanitary and there was no budget for prison maintenance. Medical care was unreliable in federal prisons and almost nonexistent in regional prisons. The daily meal budget was approximately 5 Birr (50 cents) per prisoner, and many prisoners supplemented this with daily food deliveries from their family or by purchasing food from local vendors. Prisoners often had less than 22 square feet (2.0 m2) of sleeping space in a room that could contain up to 200 persons; sleeping in rotations was not uncommon in regional prisons.
Read more about this topic: Law Enforcement In Ethiopia
Famous quotes containing the word prisons:
“Yes, it is the hour at which, long ago, I felt happy. What always awaited me then was a light and dreamless sleep. But something had changed because, with the wait for tomorrow, it is my cell that I have found. As if the familiar paths traced in the summer skies could lead to prisons as well as innocent slumbers.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)