Settling In

After a memorable trip and first day back in Uganda, Monday held the promise of a day I could really settle in – literally.  One of the main purposes of this trip was to work on settling – by way of plea bargaining – the cases against all of the juveniles in the Naguru Remand Home whose charges had been committed to the High Court.

The Naguru Remand Home, located in the capital city of Uganda, is home to about 150 children who have been arrested and charged with crimes.  These juveniles (ranging in age from 12 to 17) are warehoused at Naguru until they get their day in court.  The charged crimes are divided into two categories – capital and non-capital offenses.  The capital offenses – those eligible for the death penalty if committed by adults – are assigned to the High Court, which is Uganda’s trial court level.  The maximum sentence a juvenile can receive for a capital offense is three years in prison.  The non-capital offenses, those carrying a maximum sentence of one year, are referred to the lower Magistrate Courts.

Of the 150 kids at Naguru, about 50 of them are charged with capital offenses.  But before they can go to court, their cases must be committed to the High Court, which means that the police investigation needs to conclude and the prosecution must prepare an indictment.  There is nothing we can do to help them before this committal happens.  Once they are committed, however, we can move their cases along toward trial or other disposition.

The J-FASTER program we developed and are implementing moves these cases capital cases quickly through the system by assigning the juveniles a lawyer from the Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF), and getting their cases onto a cause list.  Over the past few months, David Nary has been working with the UCLF, the Judiciary, the prosecution, the governmental agency over the Remand Homes, and Sixty Feet.  Sixty Feet is the Atlanta-based Christian NGO that is critical to making this entire thing happen.  Their generous and unwavering support of these imprisoned kids provides the resources for the entire enterprise.

Yesterday was the culmination of all of the planning – the plea bargaining session.  All 21 kids whose cases had been committed to the High Court are represented by UCLF lawyers.  Fifteen of us gathered around a boardroom table yesterday and discussed each of the 21 cases.  By the end of the six-hour session, we had reached a tentative resolution on 18 of the 21 juvenile cases.  Over the next few days, the settlements will be finalized.  On Monday of next week, the trials for the remaining cases, if any, will be scheduled for trial, which will take place over the ensuing three or four weeks.

While a majority of the juveniles whose cases settled on Monday will still need to serve a few more months under the plea agreements, they now know when they will be going home.  In the past, most of them would still be waiting a year from now to hear when they might get a court date.

After we concluded the day’s proceedings, I got a call from a courier hired by Kenya Airways – he had my bags.  It was nice to get fresh clothes . . . and the four pillows with which I am accustomed to traveling.

David and I had a good Mexican food dinner at Lotus Mexicana and discussed the rest of the upcoming week.  The five-mile ride home took nearly two hours in the car I hired to take me and my bags back to the Sixty Feet compound for the evening.  Yes, traffic blows even at 8:00 p.m.  But I was glad that having my bags with me gave me an excuse not to take a boda boda home.