Until 1963, Alcatraz served as an island prison for the most notorious criminals like Al Capone, “Bird Man, and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. The island served its’ purpose by separating the most dangerous from society and making it nearly impossible to escape “The Rock.” This type of punishment has been unsuccessfully implemented thorough out our history. In Africa, the Rwanda president, Paul Kagame, has devised a project where all those who commit crimes are sent to a remote island named Iwawa. The state of Rwanda, which had an ethnic civil war 16 years ago and now is one of the countries cleanest, safest, and least corrupt state of all Africa (Gettleman, 2010). The communities have national health insurance, and monthly neighborhood clean ups (Gettleman, 2010). Rwanda is one the poorest countries, but have accomplished controlling crime due to the Rwanda Island Prison project. Although the outcomes of the project are effective, the procedures of the project violate civil rights and law rights.
The island houses around 900 inmates, those accused of petty crimes like stealing, loitering, and those suspected of being homeless (Gettleman, 2010). While in prison, the inmates will spend three years learning trade skills which should help with their rehabilitation.The country is fond of their new found project, but the accused are saying that its repression who is running the state. Those accused are not offered a formal trial and are also denied the chance to appear in court (Gettleman, 2010). Younger teenagers under the age of eighteen are also sent to the prison, and officials deny their presence in the island (Gettleman, 2010). Rwanda citizens say that its ,”nothing more than a camp to keep the appearance of the state uncontaminated” (Gettleman, 2010). Although the island is a prison camp, there is no sign of criminals who commit heinous crimes like murder and rape.
Similar to the United States, Rwanda incarcerates around 604 per 100,000 of the population while the U.S. incarcerates 756 per 100,000. (Reutter, 2010). Offenders who commit another number of crimes are not sent to the island of Iwawa, but are sent to prisons like Gitarama, who has been labeled as one of the most horrible prisons on earth (Balzar, 1995). The Rwanda prison does seem horrible, but there is no indication of harmful acts towards the inmates. Other statistical information that has not been mentioned is whether or not the inmates released are rehabilitated. Considering that Rwanda is now one of the cleanest and safest place to live, it may seem that the program does reintegrate inmates back into the community.
The Rwandan people mention that the island program resembles Alcatraz, but the government gives it the name ‘Hawaii’. Lawfully the Rwanda government should be held accountable for violating civil rights. If its true that the inmates are not offered a trial, the government should offer trials and release those with insufficient evidence for their confinement. The American Bar Association runs a program named the Rule of Law Initiative, who work with governments around the world to implement reform programs with volunteer lawyers (Filisko, 2010). ROLI has worked with the Republic of Congo, border country to Rwanda, and successfully addressed many criminal court issues (Filisko, 2010). Programs like the ROLI could devise a way conduct small trials for the Island inmates at the expense of the Rwandan president.
References
Balzar, John. (1995, April 16). This Years Horror In Prisons: Africa. Los Angeles Times
Filisko, G M. (2010). In The Hot Zone. ABA Journal. Chicago. 96(10). 64.
Gettleman, Jeffrey. (2010, April 30). Rwanda Pursues Dissenter and the Homeless. New York Times. pp A1 new york edition.
Reutter, David M. (2010). Over 10 Million In Prison Worldwide. Prison Legal News. 2(4). 59.
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