Detained and Disassembled

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Friday morning started off quite promising, but those promises were soon broken, sending me into panic mode and forcing me against my better judgment to scramble onto the back of a motorcycle taxi in the rain.

While I was with Andrew on Thursday, he called his friend and mine, the former Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, to schedule an opportunity for us to drop by and bring him greetings on Friday morning.  CJ Odoki is uniformly held in high esteem as the father of Uganda’s constitution, having served as the lead drafter on the constitutional committee in 1995.  Under the constitution he authored, Supreme Court justices are termed out at age 70.  He reached that age mid-year last year and retired.  Shortly thereafter, Uganda’s President Museveni appointed him back on the bench under a temporary contract, which is allowed by the constitution, but then sought to make him Chief Justice again.  This caused a furor among Uganda’s lawyers (they disbarred the Attorney General for advising the President that the appointment was constitutional) and a lawsuit by a Member of Parliament seeking to block the appointment.  This litigation is still ongoing, and Uganda has been without a substantive Chief Justice for more than a year.

While he was CJ, Odoki signed in 2009 (along with then-dean Ken Starr) the Memorandum of Understanding between Pepperdine and the Ugandan Judiciary solidifying the relationship that had begun two years earlier.  Odoki came to Pepperdine in 2010 and later permitted me the opportunity to be admitted to Uganda’s bar to argue the appeal in Henry’s case.  He also invited me to move to Uganda for six months, which my family did, to assist in the development of Uganda’s juvenile justice program.

On Friday morning, we had a chance to catch up for about ninety minutes on a variety of topics, including the Luzira Project on which we are now working.  It was good to see my old, though sharp and vibrant, friend.

With the Chief Justice and Andrew in CJ's office

Because President Museveni was giving a speech at my hotel, the roads were barricaded around the hotel for 500 meters in every direction, so my uphill walk in a suit carrying a backpack drenched me in sweat.  At the hotel, I met up with the first member of the film crew to arrive (Thursday night) and walked her downhill to Tango, the driver who would be picking up the other three crew members, and off they went at 11:30 a.m. for a 1:00 p.m. pick up.  I walked back up to the hotel looking like I had just been swimming.

At 1:30, my phone rang.  It was Tango.  He proceeded to hand the phone to Andy, the director of the documentary film we are making.  Andy was not in a good mood.  They had just flown more than thirty hours on a three-leg journey and he was tired, hungry, and angry.  The customs official at the airport had detained their five cases of camera equipment and was insisting on a substantial payment in exchange for its release.

“What do we do?” he asked.

I don’t know, I thought.  I had never encountered customs issues before.  I called Andrew, our go-to guy, for help.  I am convinced that it is not a coincidence that Andrew had just exited the office of the Chief Registrar of Uganda’s High Court.  After I caught him up on the situation, he promised to call me back.

For the next hour, I paced and attempted shuttle diplomacy, trying to assure Andy that we were doing everything we could, and trying to find out from Andrew if there was anything we could do.  The camera guys, John and Tyson, weren’t about to leave behind their highly valuable, cutting edge equipment, so any logjam would have to be broken at the airport.  Finally, Andrew called me and told me to meet him at the High Court and that we would go out to the airport together with a letter from the High Court Registrar.

“Will it work?” I asked.

“I don’t know.  I pray it will,” Andrew said.

So threw my sweaty suit back on and raced downstairs . . . into the rain.  I flagged down a motorcycle taxi, hopped on the back, and held on for dear life.  On a rain-slicked road, we hopped onto sidewalks, weaved between stopped cars, and rode for stretches on the wrong side of the road.  Good thing I was wearing Depends.  At least the rain diluted my sweat-soaked suit.  When I arrived at the Registrar’s office, I was a mess.  But protocol demanded that I sit and talk and have some fruit with them.  It was mango, and it was good.  But I knew we had a ninety-minute airport ride in front of us and the traffic jam would intensify with every passing minute.  Finally, we left and tracked down Susan Vincent’s court-assigned driver and set off for the airport.  Within two minutes, the car sputtered.  It lurched.  It belched.  It flipped us the bird and refused to move.  In the middle of traffic.

Are you blanking kidding me?

We trudged a quarter mile uphill in the rain back to the High Court to jump in Andrew’s private car.  Finally, we were off.

When we arrived at the airport, Andrew went to work.  He talked our way through security and Andy escorted the customs official over to meet with him.  Andrew spoke calmly and directly, and presented him with the letter.  Since they were speaking Luganda, I didn’t know when I was allowed to breathe so I just slowly turned purple.  Andrew pointed out the signature and seal on the letter, and the man nodded slightly and left with Andy.

“Well?” I asked Andrew.

“He will check with his supervisor.  We must wait and see.”

Thanks.  That is precisely the answer I was hoping you would give.  He was calm.  I was not.

Twenty minutes later (which seemed like six hours), we saw through glass walls all three of our team pushing luggage carts toward a customs office.  For the next forty-five minutes, they disassembled and catalogued every piece of film equipment they had, writing down the serial numbers on a customs form.  Finally, the customs official told Andrew he would release them only if Andrew would surrender his official government credentials as collateral until the film crew flew home.  Andrew didn’t hesitate.  My hero.  I felt like I needed both a cigarette and a stiff drink, and I don’t partake in either activity.

Needless to say, the guys were relieved to be released but were so ready to get to the hotel.  They did – three hours later.  The traffic was as bad as I have ever seen.

While the team wanted me to ride with them to discuss the upcoming week, protocol demanded that I ride with Andrew.  Back at the hotel, just as we sat down to eat, Henry arrived, after having dinner with the Gregston family.  I was supposed to have been there with our Twin Family, but duty called elsewhere.

For the next two hours, we discussed the upcoming week and they learned Henry’s full story of wrongful juvenile imprisonment and ultimate redemption, which will likely play an important role in the documentary.

Professor Carol Chase arrived just before midnight after a much less eventful trip through customs.  Before bed, I presented Henry with the commemorative photo frame Joline had made before I left.  Henry’s father passed in March of this year.  He was quite touched.

Henry and his father's memories

I appreciate your continuing prayers.  Please pray for less excitement as the film crew tries to capture life around Kampala on Saturday, which we hope won’t include more detention and disassembly.  As I know from personal experience, the Ugandan police can and will detain people taking pictures in ways they don’t like.

Prisoner Sensitization

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I arrived at the Luzira maximum security prison at about 11:15 a.m. with Andrew Khaukha, who serves as the Secretary (logistics leader) of the Plea Bargaining Task Force.  Andrew had spoken with the warden in advance so he knew we were coming.  After navigating three levels of security we made it inside the warden’s office.  I had met the warden on two prior occasions, and he seemed to remember me.  I hope it was for the day I was in his office when Bob Goff walked a former witch doctor through his confession of faith in Jesus, and not for the day when Bob filled and launched a massive helium balloon from inside the prison courtyard – they we none too happy with the later after they figured out what was going on.

Luzira currently houses more than 3,300 prisoners, half of whom are on remand – they have been charged with a capital offense (serious crime), but have not been convicted of anything and have not yet been to court.  Virtually none of them have a lawyer.  Many have been on remand for three to five years.  A few have been on remand even longer.  The maximum capacity for the prison as constructed was just over one thousand.

We met with the warden for about an hour about our goals, concerns, and needs for next week’s plea bargaining project.  He never really resisted anything, but really caught the vision after watching the fifteen-minute video the Ugandans recently prepared about the integration of plea bargaining into the criminal justice system.  (It was kind of them to credit Pepperdine for the education and training we are providing them).

After we discussed the video with the warden for a few minutes, he led us out into the courtyard that is bigger than a football field.  Waiting for us on one side of the courtyard was a huge party tent, a head table, a public address system, and more than six hundred prisoners on remand from two of the districts covered by the prison.  Ninety-five percent of them wore yellow striped uniforms; the other five percent wore orange.  I am not entirely clear on the distinction, but I suspect those in orange were the internal prison leadership.  About twenty unarmed guards mingled around to ensure order was maintained.

We sat with our backs against the wall at a rickety plain wooden table facing the crowd fanning out before us.  About two hundred sat cross-legged in rows beginning five feet from us.  The other stood behind them, five deep in a semi-circle stretching from the wall to our left around to the wall to our right.  Not even for a moment did I feel unsafe or insecure.  That was one of the surprising things I have learned about Ugandan prisons – there is order and calm among the prisoners.  I am not sure if this is cultural, or if it is because they know the consequences of revolt would be severe.

The warden commandeered one sputtering microphone and an orange-shirted inmate gripped the other.  Over the next ten minutes, the warden did a decent job of providing an overview of plea bargaining.  He got a few things wrong, but nothing critical.  He then told the inmates that if they wanted to participate, they would go to the prison office with their indictment and sign a list.  Andrew followed next and did an excellent job of outlining the benefits of plea bargaining and explaining that they would have a lawyer representing them in plea discussions with the prosecution if they opted in.  He made sure to encourage them only to sign up they were willing to plead guilty.  Both spoke in Luganda with the orange-suited prisoner interpreting in English.

After fifteen minutes, Andrew introduced me and handed me the microphone.  I brought them greetings from the United States and Pepperdine and told them how much of a privilege it was to be invited to come to Uganda to provide them assistance.  I reiterated several of Andrew’s points, emphasizing that we didn’t want anyone to plead guilty who was innocent.  I also explained that we wanted to work with those who, while they may have committed crimes of violence, did so in self-defense or accidentally.  Our hope is to plead those cases to manslaughter.  I further explained how the process would work – they would have a team of five legally trained individuals assisting them and that all conversations were confidential.  They were warm and gracious when I finished ten minutes later.

Then came the less warm and, at times, hostile part.

In order to put them at ease and to encourage their engagement, Andrew had told them they would be permitted to ask questions when we finished.  He cautioned them, however, that we would only be able to answer questions pertinent to the plea bargaining project and process.  But when the Q & A period started, very few of the questions painted within the lines.  Several unloaded on the police, accusing them of corruption and falsifying evidence.  Others directed their attention at the lying complainants whose allegations put them there.  Still others tried to explain why they were innocent of the charges filed against them without specifically blaming anyone.  Some of the comments were followed by rousing cheers, while others generated derisive jeers.  A handful of the questions and comments were pertinent and thought-provoking.  Andrew did his best to respond in the Ugandan way – taking all of the questions before responding to any of them.  The beauty of this approach is that it allows the respondent to pick and choose the questions that receive attention.  The Q & A session was a painful 90 minutes, but Andrew handled it well.  I was bummed we didn’t get this on film, but the film crew arrives on Friday afternoon and we will do another small “prisoner sensitization” session on Monday.

From there, we attempted to have a similar session at another medium security prison in the same complex.  The warden was supposedly expecting us, but after waiting for more than an hour, we decided to leave and return on Friday.

From the prison, I headed to Makerere Medical School to meet with a contact there about Henry’s hoped-for admission in the coming days.  (For new blog followers, Henry is a former juvenile prison who has become a surrogate member of the Gash family).  I learned nothing about the admission timing in the visit, but renewed a good friendship and got a tentative meeting set with the dean of the school.

After spending a couple hours with an American couple trying to surmount some challenges they are facing in Uganda, I headed to the airport with my trusty and entertaining driver, Tango.  We picked up Revolution Picture’s Michelle Abnet, who is the producer of the documentary we are filming.

The action will rev up more each day in advance of Sunday’s all-hands-on-deck team meeting before we descend upon Luzira on Monday.  I hope to be able to start posting some pictures in the next day or two of what is happening beyond the prison walls, but they are still confiscating any cameras before we enter.  We are hoping to have the right permission soon.

I will close with the simple truth I was reminded of today by our Nootbaar Fellow, Susan Vincent, which captures Uganda quite well:

Very little is ideal; so much is possible.

We are praying for the possible . . .

The Luzira Project

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My apologies for being a little opaque about the project we are working on during this trip, so what follows is an overview.

In the summer of 2009, while two Pepperdine law students (Greer Illingworth and Micheline Zamora) were interning for the head of Uganda’s Criminal Division of its High Court, they noticed that Uganda’s prisons were overcrowded, to put it mildly, and inquired about the resolution of criminal cases.  They learned that those arrested essentially had two options: plead guilty to all charges filed, or wait “on remand” in prison for their case to go to trial.  At that time, the wait time was five to seven years, and getting longer.  When they suggested the idea of plea bargaining, their judicial boss asked them to write a report.  Following the report, they were asked to do a presentation to the entire Criminal Division.  The idea was well received, and the report was passed along to the Chief Justice of Uganda.

In January of 2010, Jay Milbrandt, David Barrett, Ray Boucher, and I journeyed to Uganda in an effort to bring relief to a group of twenty-one juveniles on remand awaiting their trial in a juvenile remand home, some for as long as two years.  This trip was inspired by a Bob Goff speech at a Christian Legal Society conference.  Bob arranged for the Uganda Country Director of Restore International, which was started and run by Bob Goff and Danny DeWalt, to provide logistical assistance for us.  And since Pepperdine’s first Nootbaar Fellow (law school alum serving a one-year fellowship for the courts in Uganda), John Napier, was already in Uganda, he joined the team of six.  During this one-week project, we prepared all twenty-one cases for resolution by the Ugandan court system.  Many of the cases were dismissed, some kids pled guilty and were sentenced to time served, and a few went to trial.  This was the week I met Henry, the Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of the inmate government, who served as my interpreter for the week, and who is now essentially part of my family.

When one of the cases went sideways, I flew back to Uganda in April of 2010 to assist in the preparation of the sentencing report.  During that trip, I met with the Head of the Criminal Division, who told me he was interested in arranging a plea bargaining study tour to the United States in the wake of the Chief Justice’s receptivity to our students’ report on plea bargaining.  The following month, six Ugandan judges came to Pepperdine for a week of intense study of what plea bargaining was and whether it might work in Uganda.  Two months later, I came back to Uganda with another group of Pepperdine lawyers (including former Vice Dean Tim Perrin) for another week of intense case preparation at a different juvenile remand home.

The plea bargaining idea continued to bubble along, and was discussed further when I returned again in the summer of 2011 with another group of lawyers for another week of case preparation in a juvenile remand home.  That group of lawyers included Pepperdine Provost Darryl Tippens (honorary lawyer), Pepperdine Law interim dean Tom Bost, and Pepperdine alumnus Eric Hagen.  In advance of that week’s activities, I coordinated with American lawyer Brian Dennison, who is on faculty at Uganda Christian University’s law school, and we developed the idea of teams of lawyers that included Pepperdine law students and Pepperdine lawyers, and Uganda law students and Ugandan lawyers.  That combination proved quite successful and became our model.

Along the way, I accepted the Chief Justice’s invitation to move to Uganda to help them re-envision the process through which juveniles move from arrest to trial.  Out of that six months emerged the J-FASTER system whereby kids would be moved through much more quickly.  Several successful pilot programs were run (including one in the summer of 2012 in which Professor Carol Chase joined the team) and the system was integrated, with the excellent and ongoing assistance of an American NGO called Sixty Feet.  As I departed in July of 2012, I delivered to the Chief Justice a roadmap for integrating J-FASTER into the adult realm.  The first recommendation on my list was the formation of a plea bargaining task force.

Last summer, another group of American lawyers joined me for our first foray into the adult realm.  It went reasonably well, but more importantly, it spurred the appointment of the aforementioned task force.  The members of the task force launched a pilot adult program earlier this year that was fully run by Ugandans.  Lessons were learned and then shared last week during the task force’s visit to Pepperdine, as discussed here.  After a week of fine tuning in the United States, the Luzira Project was finalized which launches this weekend.

The Luzira Project will be a collaboration of fourteen Pepperdine law students (twelve interning in Uganda this summer, and two flying in from their internships in Rwanda), ten Pepperdine lawyers, about ten Ugandan lawyers, and about ten Ugandan law students.  The group of more than forty of us will descend upon Uganda’s maximum security prison, called Luzira, for an intense week of case preparation involving more than one hundred adult prisoners who have been waiting on remand for as long as five years for a lawyer and a resolution of their cases.

As is always the case in Uganda, there have been some logistical challenges we are navigating, which is why I came in five days before most of the team, but things are heading the right direction with the excellent assistance of Susan Vincent, Pepperdine’s current Nootbaar Fellow.  The first member of the team to land in Uganda isn’t a lawyer or law student – it is film producer Michelle Abnet, from Revolution Pictures.  Revolution (based in Nashville) began filming a documentary of Pepperdine’s relationship with the Ugandan Judiciary a couple months ago when it interviewed our summer student interns before they left Malibu for Uganda.  Michelle lands on Thursday evening to do some location scouting and logistics.  Then on Friday afternoon, the rest of the film crew arrives – Andy Reale (Director), Tyson Van Skiver (camera), and John Pope (Director of Photography).  Incidentally, John’s last documentary “Blood Brother” won the 2013 Sundance Grand Jury and Audience Awards, as well as a dozen others.

Then on Friday evening, Pepperdine Professor Carol Chase flies in for her third prison project trip.  On Saturday, the bulk of the team lands, including Dana Hinojosa (Nootbaar Manager who is a stellar logistical coordinator and proved it in last summer’s project), Eric Hagen (second prison project), Erica Olson (former colleague of Eric’s and mine from Kirkland, now an intellectual property lawyer for Amgen), Jared Johnson (Las Vegas lawyer), Karissa Freano (Los Angeles lawyer), Bryan Pereboom (flying in from China where he practices with an American firm), Pepperdine Professor Christine Goodman, Pepperdine General Counsel Mark Goodman, and their son Alex.  On Sunday, Pepperdine film professor Craig Detweiler and his family arrive.  Craig was instrumental in the envisioning and logistical navigation of the documentary project from its inception, and will assist the story crafting and filming.

So that’s what we’re doing here.

Incidentally, Wednesday was a day of meetings and logistical planning capped off with a nice dinner with the students.  There are countless ways this entire project could jump the rails in crippling ways, so your prayers are appreciated.

Fase 2

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“We are having problems balancing the fuel,” the pilot said as we sat on the tarmac in Amsterdam.  Two hours later, he rambled on about wings and fuselages and fuel movement.  The important words were “new plane” and “new gate.”  So when we finally landed in Kampala at around 2:00 a.m. (3.5 hours late), I was a bit on the tired end.

I had sent Susan Vincent (Pepperdine Nootbaar Fellow in Uganda) an email during the delay so she wouldn’t ruin her entire night by waiting for me.  Anthony, one of the many private drivers I have used over the years was there to greet me.  “You are most welcome, Mr. Jim.  How is America?”

They always want to know how America is doing.  I decided not to go into the specifics of the first-world challenges America is currently facing.  Uganda would love to have the challenge of deciding whether government-mandated health insurance was a good thing or not.  Any sort of reliable health care would be a huge step forward.

After checking for urgent e-mail, the ambien hit the back of my throat at 3:30 a.m., and I collided with Mr. Sandman at 4:00.

I was jarred from my coma by two separate intrusions within thirty seconds of each other.  I got both a wake-up call from the restaurant and a knock on the door from the maid.  Did I want breakfast before it closed at 10:00 a.m.?  Did I want my room cleaned?

Before I could address their questions, I had a few of my own: “Where am I?  What day is it?  Where is Joline?”  The first morning in Uganda always starts with these re-orienting questions.

After brushing off both the restaurant and the maid, I got started making calls and scheduling meetings.  Susan and I ran some logistical errands before having lunch with Andrew, our main logistical coordinator for the prison project we came to do.  When someone does something nice for you in Uganda, you vow to “get revenge” later.  Last week, Andrew was with us at Pepperdine and made many threats of “getting revenge” this week.  He started off this by taking Susan and me to a nice lunch, and then walking us through the arrangements he was trying to make to ensure the project goes off without too many hitches.  There are still numerous boxes to check and permissions to secure before Monday’s kickoff, but things are as on track as they have ever been in this developing country.

Dinner with the Pepperdine Students at Fase 2

Following an afternoon of meetings with judges, I had the privilege of having dinner at a restaurant called Fase 2 with the twelve Pepperdine students here for the summer.  It was so great to see them and to hear their stories about their work with the courts and prosecution and about the adventures they are having.  They are posting regularly at www.wavesofjustice.com.

Today will be another day of meetings and planning before the rest of the team starts trickling in on Thursday.  Many more pictures and stories to come over the next two weeks.  Should be an adventure.

Fourteen Layovers

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Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport feels way too familiar as I upload this update on this, my fourteenth journey to Uganda in the past four years.  The fifteen days I will be on the ground are pregnant with unpredictability.  But such is life in Africa.

On Saturday, I delivered to LAX the nine members of the Uganda delegation who spent a frenetic week of what they are fond of calling “benchmarking” – studying the best practices in plea bargaining.  Over the past four years, I have had the privilege of assisting them as they seek to transition from a heavily back-logged criminal justice system where all criminal cases are tried before the court, to one in which a majority of cases are resolved through a negotiated guilty plea in advance of trial.  In the United States, something approaching 98% of all criminal cases are plea bargained.  Uganda’s current system leads to delays of up to five years (or more) between arrest and trial.  Part of the challenge arises from the fact that the constitutional right to a lawyer only effectively materializes when trial starts.  This, quite naturally, impedes quick resolution of criminal cases.

The delegation who came here is the third in the past four years to move the plea bargaining ball closer to the end zone.  We are now in the red zone and can smell the goalposts.  The delegation consisted primarily of the Plea Bargaining Task Force appointed by the former Chief Justice, which included the Principal Judge (head of the trial-level High Court of Uganda), the Head of the Criminal Division of the High Court, two more High Court judges, the Director of Public Prosecution for the country and one of his senior attorneys, the Secretary of the Task Force who works as a legislative drafter for Uganda’s Law Reform Commission, and the Personal Assistant to the Principal Judge, who is also an accomplished lawyer and scholar.  Rounding out the delegation was the Deputy Ambassador to the United States from Uganda (Dickson Ogwang), who flew in from Washington, DC and is someone I got to know during my first trip to Uganda in January of 2010.

Following a Mexican food meal at my house after they landed on Sunday evening, they endeavored to adjust to the ten-hour time difference with some much-needed sleep.  Monday was a full day of de-briefing and vision-casting with me, Professors Carol Chase, Chris Goodman, and Harry Caldwell, and one of my former students, Jake Glucksman, who has served as both a prosecutor and a defense counsel in Los Angeles. This session was critical in defining the parameters of the remaining work.  We closed the evening with a dinner hosted by Danny DeWalt at Dean Tacha’s house.  Danny has just joined Pepperdine’s administration and was staying at the Dean’s house while she is out of town.  As a co-professor with Bob Goff at Pepperdine Law, as a law partner to Bob Goff, as the Vice President of Restore International, and as the Honorary Counsel for Uganda for San Diego, Danny’s roots are long and deep at both Pepperdine and in Uganda.  Danny was kind enough to record the USA vs. Ghana opening World Cup match for us to watch over dinner.  Our Ugandan friends were gracious to cheer our victory, but they would have failed a lie detector test if they said they were rooting against their fellow African country.

Tuesday was a stellar day at the Ventura Courthouse – Ventura DA Greg Totten is an alumnus and always comes through for us.  He gathered a blue ribbon panel of prosecutors, judges, public defenders, investigators, and probation officers to walk us through Ventura’s approach to resolving criminal cases short of trial.  In the afternoon, the Ugandans were granted the rare privilege of sitting in a court’s chambers while the parties negotiated case resolutions right there in front of us, demonstrating that the judge can be involved in plea bargaining, and can make a material improvement on the outcome.  On the way back, we stopped at Costco for what was supposed to be a thirty-minute visit.  Two hours later, they had materially added to the Westlake Village GDP.

We were hosted on Wednesday by Melissa Mertens, a public defender at the San Fernando Courthouse where we were given a behind-the-scenes look at how to provide indigent counsel with competent representation.  This was particularly enlightening because Uganda doesn’t have a public defender system.  Each defendant charged with a capital (serious) offense is assigned a “state brief” lawyer at the last minute who is paid a pittance to represent the accused.  And from what I have personally observed, and what I have been told by numerous judges, the pittance they are paid is profoundly more than they deserve.  Uganda is currently considering a bill in parliament that would put things on the right track, but there isn’t the money set aside for such a venture.  After the public defender’s office, we got a tour of a county jail given by Melissa’s husband David, who is an LA County Sheriff.  While the jail presents a stark contrast with the prisons in Uganda, it was still not a pleasant place to be.  Next week, I will be posting pictures from inside Uganda’s maximum security prison.  They won’t be for the faint of heart.  Three of the Ugandans decided to accept the optional invitation to go on a ride along with the Sheriffs and had a dead-body, crystal meth, domestic violence riddled time.  They really enjoyed it.

Ugandan Delegation at the LA Police Department

Thursday started off at the LA PD with briefings by alumnus John Gehart and Adjunct Professor Steve Lurie, both of whom are police officers and lawyers.  There was some good discussion about relationships between police and prosecutors in both countries and what sort of evidence is turned over at what stages.  As you might imagine, we turn over much more, much earlier than in Uganda, which is how the parties can make informed decisions about whether to plea bargain a case.  The afternoon was spent hammering out the final edits to the Practice Direction that is about to be issued to all attorneys in Uganda that will govern plea bargaining.  Next week’s project that about twenty-five of us from Pepperdine will be involved in will be the final test run before full launch.  Thursday evening closed with a wonderful dinner hosted by Chris and Mark, and Alex Goodman, all three of which will be joining me in Uganda later this week.

Friday was a day of shopping, and boy can they shop.  Costco again, Camarillo Outlets, and Walmart had good days.  On Saturday, Danny DeWalt took them to Hollywood for a two-hour bus tour before meeting up with me (and their luggage) at LAX.

The next two weeks have the potential to go really well.  There are milestones and a court decision that may bring a fresh start to a new chapter and may close the book on an emotional journey.  Or they may inject further delay into a strung-out system and may send a few of us back to the edge of despair.

Whatever happens, I promise it won’t be boring or uneventful.  So check back here daily to ride the roller coaster with our team of 14 students, ten lawyers, and five filmmakers as we try to capture the story of the partnership between Pepperdine and Ugandan Judiciary that is unfolding and unfurling before us, behind us, and inside us.

We covet your prayers these next two weeks.

Joshua in Uganda!

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Joshua and a team of his high school classmates from Oaks Christian School are on a mission trip in Uganda right now.

They have been working on service projects and sharing their faith with Ugandan students.  Today they got to have some fun at the Croc Farm and visit the Equator.

Joshua (orange shirt) and friends at the Equator

If you want to see photos and hear about what they are doing, you can go to their blog:

http://ocsuganda2014.blogspot.com/

 

Moving Pictures

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Gary Haugen Interview for Documentary

It was such an honor and privilege to have IJM President Gary Haugen teaching at Pepperdine last week.  My role was to be his “co-teacher” in this one-unit, one-week intensive class on International Human Rights.  I reached my highest and best use as his “co-teacher” by taking roll, preparing the written administrative materials, and smiling politely as he taught the course.  The class largely centered around his groundbreaking new book called The Locust Effect, which I have now read twice.  Occasionally, I interjected with an experience or two from my work in Uganda, but I was thrilled to mostly be a student learning from the leader in this arena.  I will be grading the papers the students turn in on Monday.

Just before Gary taught the final class, he graciously agreed to be interviewed on camera by one of the filmmakers who will be following our group of Pepperdine students and alums to Uganda this summer.  When we started our prison projects in Uganda in 2010, former Global Justice Program Director Jay Milbrandt began visually capturing our experiences.  He captured many moving pictures of us engaged in our work, and also created two different moving pictures in the form of short documentary films in 2010’s “The Masindi Project” and 2011’s “Remand: Jail for Kids in Africa.”  After last summer’s project in an adult prison in Fort Portal, we were approached by filmmakers about making a much longer, more comprehensive film about our work in Ugandan prisons.

About two weeks ago, we got the green light from Pepperdine and entered into a relationship with Nashville-based Revolution Pictures to make the documentary film.  Revolution is run by an award-winning filmmaker, Randy Brewer, who also graduated from my alma mater, Abilene Christian.  Anticipating that we might go ahead with this, Pepperdine film professor Craig Detweiler has been capturing footage of interviews with Ugandan judges visiting Pepperdine over the past several months for possible use in the film.  It was for the same purpose that Craig interviewed Gary Haugen last week – for possible use in the documentary.

The Nashville production team is flying out this week to film interviews with the twelve Pepperdine students who will be traveling to Uganda for the summer to work for Ugandan judges and to join the prison project.

The prison project this summer will involve spending one week inside the Luzira Maximum Security Prison preparing the cases of more than 100 adult prisoners who have been waiting several years for a lawyer, the evidence against them, and a court date.  The team will consist of 6-10 American lawyers, 12 Pepperdine Law students, 6-10 Uganda law students, and 6-10 Ugandan lawyers.  We are still finalizing the team of American lawyers, so if anyone reading this is potentially interested in joining the team, let me know ASAP and I will send you the precise dates (late June/early July) and the cost structure.

It appears that the filmmakers want to include some of Henry’s story as background and lead-in, so it will be fun to visit with and film his family as part of this trip.

Speaking of Henry, his extended family had a meeting this past week to discuss the path forward in the wake of the passing of Henry’s father.  The aunt who is trying to take Henry’s family’s land was not among the 79 attendees, though she sent a representative on her behalf to continue to assert her claim on the land.  I was heartened to learn that the rest of those in attendance refused to allow the representative to even speak at the gathering.  Nevertheless, Henry is moving forward with trying to secure legal title to the land, which will be a lengthy and expensive process.

Post-Mortem Report

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Unfortunately, I spoke too soon.  In my prior post a few weeks ago, I explained Uganda’s lamentable history of “land grabbing” in the immediate wake of the death of the male leader of a family.  Too often, and too successfully, relatives of the deceased forcefully (and forcibly) eject the grieving widow and her children from her land and “reclaim” the property for the family of the deceased father.  Because Henry had been named the new family “heir” (head of the family), I had assumed that the father’s relatives had decided to behave themselves.  I was wrong.

At the second extended family meeting following the burial of Henry’s father, Henry’s aunt (father’s sister) announced that she had something to tell the entire group.  She declared that immediately prior to Henry’s father purchasing the land upon which Henry has lived his entire life, she had loaned him the money for the purchase and that he was holding the land for her.  The land is now hers, she proclaimed.  Needless to say, this was quite a shock to all in attendance.  In response to questioning, she claimed to have proof, but refused to say what it was.

The next day, Henry consulted with the Local Council Chairman (roughly equivalent to the mayor) and with a lawyer.  Unsurprisingly, the land title is not recorded anywhere, so the aunt will likely try to record the land in her name.  Fortunately, the Chairman has now been alerted to these shenanigans and has promised he won’t let that happen.  He has been Chairman for more than thirty years and has no recollection of anything like Henry’s aunt is claiming.  Fortunately, a friend of mine is the field office director of International Justice Mission’s Kampala office, and they focus exclusively on combating this type of land grabbing.  He was able to send me a manual setting forth the step-by-step instructions for securing the land, and I was able to get that to Henry.  The first step is to secure a death certificate for Henry’s father, so Henry set out for Kampala to meet with the doctors at the hospital where his father died.

A couple days later, Henry returned with the death certificate in his hand, but more importantly, he returned with an abiding peace in his heart.  While at the hospital, he learned that a post-mortem examination of his father was performed in conjunction with the training of medical students at the Makerere medical school – his father had been designated as a test patient for study by the students.  That post-mortem revealed that Henry’s father had advanced liver cancer and had tumors throughout his bile duct and massive internal bleeding.  This, of course, means that there was nothing that could have been done to save his father and that surgery would have been futile – the doctor told Henry as much in person.  This came as such a relief to Henry (and me) as we are now able to stop the second guessing about whether we should have done something differently.

When Henry told me this last week, he said the fact that the hoped-for surgery never happened “was a blessing from God.  My father did not have to go through the painful operation, but was able to die in peace.”

A few days later, we began another post-mortem, of sorts.  In mid-March, Uganda released the national examination results we have been waiting for since Henry took the exam in November.  These results will determine Henry’s educational future, or lack thereof.  In order to understand and appreciate what the scores mean, a bit of background is necessary.

In Uganda, kids begin school at the age of five or six in what is called Nursery School.  They then complete Primary One through Primary Eight, after which they take a national exam to see if they qualify for Secondary school.  Those who do qualify enroll in what is called O Level, which is Secondary One through Secondary Four.  After Secondary Four, they take another national exam to see which ones of those qualify for what is called A Level.  This national exam consists of ten subjects and is taken over the course of two weeks.  The results of these tests are segregated out by subject.  The best possible score on each subject is 1 and the worst is 10.  The aggregate score is determined by adding up the scores on the best eight subjects, so the best aggregate score is an 8 – one point on each of eight subjects.  A Level consists of Secondary Five and Six where students select three main subjects and one subsidiary subject to study.

Entry into A Level is highly competitive and students apply based upon the subjects they want to study, based upon the career they want to enter.  To have a chance of being admitted to medical school, students must select Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, along with Subsidiary Mathematics.  This “PCB” is the most competitive program in the country.  Following completion of A Level, students take yet another national exam on the four subjects they studied in A Level.  That exam is scored on a twenty-point scale, with 20 being the highest possible score.  The highest possible score on the main subjects is six, with the lowest being a zero.  Two additional points can be earned – one on the subsidiary subject and one on a general paper.  In order to be eligible to apply for admission to a university, students must score at least a 2 in at least two of the main subjects.  Admission to university can be achieved through either a government scholarship or through private admission (full pay).

In November of 2011, Henry scored an aggregate 18 on his O Level national exam, which included scores of a 1 (highest possible score) in Chemistry, a 2 in Physics, and a 5 in Biology.  These solid scores (and lots of prayer) got him admitted to the top A Level science Secondary school in Uganda.  In November of 2013, Henry took his A Level national exam.  Two weeks ago today, he received his results.  He earned the maximum 1 point each on the General Paper and Subsidiary Mathematics portions.  In Chemistry, he earned 5 of 6 possible, and on Physics and Biology, he earned 4 of 6.  His total score, then, was 15 of 20.  We were elated.

Of the 114,000 total test takers, only 54% earned at least a 2 in at least two subjects, only 29% earned a 2 in all three subjects, and the vast majority of the test takers avoided the sciences – the most difficult subjects.  In Physics and Biology, less than half the takers even scored a 2 in those subjects, and in Chemistry, only five percent of the takers earned a perfect 6.  While we don’t know exactly where Henry ranks in the aggregate among those who took the requisite Physics, Chemistry, and Biology for medical school, we do know that Henry will be in the running to be considered for private admission to Makerere Medical School, the top in the country.  We have learned that he will not qualify for one of the fifty government sponsored admissions, but my parents have committed to paying for Henry’s medical school if he is admitted.  Applications for the remaining fifty private admission spots will begin in early May.  Your prayers are greatly appreciated as this process unfolds.

The night before we learned of these results, I had the opportunity to guest lecture in a Crime and Punishment class at Long Beach State taught by my friend Sienna Hopkins.  Two years ago, Dr. Hopkins was babysitting for my sister (with whom she is quite close), and she happened to notice on my sister’s desk an early draft of the manuscript Henry and I have been working on in an effort to tell our story.  On a whim, she started reading it.  When my sister returned home, Sienna asked if she could continue reading it at home.  Now two years later, Sienna asked if she could distribute five of the chapters to her students to read, and then have me come to class to talk about our story and fill in the blanks between the chapters.  I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and Henry awoke quite early (4:30 a.m.) so he could join the class discussion via Skype for a few minutes.  A good (and occasionally emotional) time was had by all.

In other happy news, one of my former students who has been following the plight of Henry and Joseph surprised me last month by insisting on paying for Joseph’s A Level (Secondary Five and Six) school fees over the next two years.  What a blessing for Henry and Joseph’s family!

Thin Dividers

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Professor Bell receiving Ugandan expressions of gratitude

As I rode to the airport on Friday, I once again saw through unjaded eyes the raw texture of the landscape and peoplescape around me.  My companion was California Superior Court Judge Paul Beeman, who had never been to Africa before.

“God, this is beautiful,” he said as the sunset on both the productive day and the intense week of training.  “Looks like they are working late this Friday afternoon,” he said as we drove by a man using a grinding wheel on the side of the road.  It was just after 7:00 p.m. and the small produce stands and metal and wood workshops along Entebbe Road were still bustling with activity as the locals continued to grind out their subsistence life.

We had arrived less than one week earlier under cover of darkness, and we had been so busy during the ensuing week that he hadn’t really gotten a glimpse into daily Ugandan life, at least not beyond that of the elite judges and lawyers with whom we had been interacting.  Judge Beeman’s comments reminded me that I had become so accustomed to life in Uganda that I failed to see both the awesome beauty of the God’s creation in this part of the world and the desperate state of many of its citizens.  This realization transported me back to my first trip in 2010 when the stark contrast between my life and those of my counterparts here came into such sharp relief.

I came face to face then – and once again on Friday night—with the sobering recognition that an inexplicable thin, and inexplicably thin, divider separates my life from theirs.  I can fathom no rational explanation as to why I was born into an intact, secure, stable, and loving family in a safe, flourishing, and wealthy environment, in contrast to those I see on the way to and from the airport and on the rare occasions when I visit the bush villages.  I suppose that a similar observation could be made when comparing circumstances between the “haves and the have nots” in the United States, but the “have nots” in the United States would be among the upper quartile of the “haves” in Uganda.

Clean and readily accessible water, reliable electricity, quality education, and a responsive and responsible police force are so easy to take for granted.  I am thankful for the fresh eyes of Judge Beeman that helped me see that again.

Just two hours earlier, the one-week training session culminated in a touching closing ceremony during which judges and lawyers alike lavished profuse compliments, profound gratitude, and prodigious gifts on the four Pepperdine mediation trainers.  I wish I had a video of the remarks because I find myself at a loss to capture the sentiments expressed.  The highlight of the ceremony was the announcement by a group of attorneys that they were forming a lawyers’ Mediation Society.  The Ugandan judges were stunned.  For years, the constant drumbeat from the lawyers had been that they opposed mediation because they were convinced it would negatively impact their revenue stream.  In fact, ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) is jokingly, though not in a funny way, referred to by Ugandan lawyers as Acute Deficiency in Revenue.  But by the end of the training week, not only had the Ugandan lawyers accepted it, but they warmly embraced it to the point of actively promoting it.  Very satisfying.

Earlier on Friday, Susan Vincent and I spend a couple hours with Andrew, the Secretary of the Plea Bargaining Committee appointed by the Chief Justice.  It was so encouraging to have the undivided attention of someone with legislative drafting training and experience who so intimately understood both the theoretical and practical challenges facing Uganda in the wide-scale implementation of this time- and resource-saving practice.  As we wound down, he expressed confidence that “we shall succeed in this, with God’s help, and if He wills it.”  I took this comment as an invitation to suggest that we pray together.  His face lit up, as he confessed that he had been disappointed that we hadn’t prayed together when we met two days earlier with the Principal Judge.  He grabbed our hands and we prayed like the future of Uganda’s criminal justice system was entirely resting in God’s hands.  It is.

A couple hours later, I called Henry to catch up.  The burial the day before had gone according to plan and he was in the middle of a meeting with his relatives.  We agreed to talk an hour later.  When we did, I learned that the relatives of Henry’s deceased father had decided that Henry would be the new head of his family, even though he has an older brother and a few older siblings from his father’s prior marriage.  This is a great honor and a great responsibility, and Henry is humbled to be asked “to lead the clan.”  I am not entirely sure what all this entails, but I do know that it is not at all uncommon for major land-related problems to arise when a man who owns property dies in Uganda and in other developing countries.  Too often, the relatives of the deceased descend upon the land and expel the widow and her children, claiming entitlement to the land to exclusion of the survivors.  It appears this will not happen in Henry’s family, since he (rather than his father’s brothers or other male relatives) are not asserting possession of the land.

Another meeting is scheduled for Monday, and I will talk to Henry shortly thereafter to ensure things are settled and secure.

Just before boarding my flight out of Uganda on Friday night, I encountered another thin divider – between me and the guy responsible for the Ugandan chapter of my life opening up.

Bob Goff travels to Uganda two or three times a year and we occasionally overlap.  This time, our overlap was only for a few minutes, so I decided to snap a picture of us together in Uganda, separated by a thin pane of glass.

As I write this, I am about halfway home – sitting in an airport lounge in Amsterdam.  This trip never gets easier or shorter.  Thanks for following along.

Bob and I during a brief encounter at the Entebbe Airport
Closing Ceremony

Providential Confluences

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Birthday Dinner (Denise Madigan, Professor Bell, Aaron, Judge Goldberg, Emily, Susan, Judge Beeman

The events of the past two days have reminded me that diligence, patience, and prayer often lead to positive outcomes.  Henry’s father David was laid to rest from his toil and pain on this earth on Thursday.  Regretfully, I was unable to travel the three-plus hours each way to attend the gathering due to the full schedule of meetings at which I was a necessary party.  Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, my mourning was seasoned heavily with dashes (and perhaps truckloads) of hope and anticipation.

On Wednesday morning, I met for an hour with the Principal Judge of Uganda, who is in charge of the entire trial court system (called the High Court).  He Chairs the Plea Bargaining Committee, which consists of ten men and women tasked with creating the structure for Uganda’s adaptation of plea bargaining in their criminal justice system.  (A structure we developed in 2012 for doing this in the juvenile realm is functioning, at least as well as such systems function here).  Joining us at this meeting was the Secretary of the Committee, who is responsible for drafting the judicial instrument (called a Practice Direction) that will be used to roll out plea bargaining on a wide scale.  He will then be the one responsible for turning that instrument into legislation before Parliament.  The Secretary and I spent another hour together walking through the current working draft and making revisions and edits.

During this meeting, he informed me that a delegation of eight Ugandan judges and lawmakers are hoping to engage in a final “benchmarking” visit to the United States before they finalize their internal and external plea bargaining documents.  This visit to Pepperdine will likely take place in early May.

While I was at the High Court for this meeting, I learned from a highly placed source that the Austrian government had just approved a new three-year funding program for mediation training and implementation.  At a time when several donor nations have announced they are curtailing their aid to Uganda in the wake of some recent legislation passed by Parliament and signed by the President, Austria has decided to step up to the plate in a big way to assist the Judiciary in its effort to provide more effective and efficient access to justice for its people.  The parameters of that aid package are such that many of my Ugandan friends on the Judiciary are confident that much of the additional training by Pepperdine the Ugandans desperately seek could be funded by this new grant.   

One of our four Pepperdine mediation trainers, Judge Mitchell Goldberg, celebrated his 71st birthday in style on Tuesday.  The room full of Ugandan judges provided a rousing Ugandan version of happy birthday, as did the room full of attorneys shortly thereafter.  It was quite touching to see how emotionally affected Judge Goldberg was by their warm and sincere wishes to him.  We ended the evening with a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant in Kampala – the Emin Pasha.  Susan had sneakily bought a birthday cake for the occasion.

Up until earlier this week, I had no idea there were veterinarian doctors in Uganda.  There are relatively few dogs, and almost no cats (other than the big cats roaming the plains in search of antelope), so the need for vets in the capital city of Kampala is quite anemic.  Perhaps that is why this veterinarian doesn’t practice medicine, but is instead the Commissioner General of Prisons in Uganda.  This meeting had been arranged by the Director of Public Prosecution, Mike Chibita, earlier in the week and was aimed at accomplishing several tasks.  The first of which requires a bit of context.

A couple months ago, a judge from Louisiana, after reading Bob Goff’s witty and inspiring book Love Does, called Pepperdine to ask some follow up questions about our Uganda work, which is mentioned in the book.  The judge was routed to me, and we have become long-distance friends.  About a month ago, he sent me a book called Cain’s Redemption that chronicles the pioneering and transformative work on moral rehabilitation of prisoners by warden Burl Cain at the Angola maximum security prison in Louisiana.  My meeting on Thursday morning represented the providential confluence of my work here in Uganda and some proactive thinking by the Louisiana judge.  We have now penciled in a visit of the top Ugandan prison officials to the Angola prison later this year.  They are thrilled at the prospect of learning how to improve the quality of the correctional work they deliver at their 224 prisons.

As always is the case, there are logistical and funding details that need to be worked out, but I have a high degree of confidence this will happen, especially after what I found out at dinner Thursday night.  More on that below.

The second task was to secure the cooperation of the prison system for our continuing work in Uganda prisons.  Since 2010, Pepperdine has been bringing teams to Uganda to assist in the case preparation of prisoners who have been languishing in prison for years and years, just waiting for someone to do something.  No lawyer, no evidence provided against them, no trial date, and even less hope.  The problem is not so much with not caring about the prisoners, but much more about not having the knowledge or resources to deliver timely access to justice.  From early 2010 through mid 2013, our focus was exclusively on the juvenile realm.  Following a measure of success in that context, we turned our sights toward the adults.  Last July, a team of American lawyers, American law students, Ugandan lawyers, and Ugandan law students descended upon Katojo prison in Fort Portal to prepare for trial seventy cases for disposal through plea bargaining.  More on that here.  After Thursday’s meeting, we had the green light from the prisons to step up our efforts by conducting another intensive week of case preparation in late June at Uganda’s maximum security prison called Luzira.

The third (and potentially very exciting topic) of this meeting went according to plan, though we need to get a letter agreement with final permission before I feel comfortable disclosing what this is.  Needless to say, Susan and I left this meeting quite encouraged.

From there, Susan and I met an Austrian who heads the arm of the Dutch government that funds various judicial improvements and training programs.  I have met with her on numerous occasions before, and she told us a bit more about the Austrian mediation grant, buoying our spirits even further.

Before dinner, Susan and I met with the appropriate judicial and prosecutorial figures to finalize the June Luzira prison project from their end.  The meeting couldn’t have gone better.

As is our custom when I am in town, we organized a dinner at the elegant Fang Fang Chinese Restaurant with the Ugandan judges who have previously made the trip to Pepperdine.  These men and women are becoming dear friends and it is always wonderful to spend an evening with them.  But this gathering was extra special because we were joined by a friend of mine who works at the US Embassy.  His day job is to manage a variety of justice system projects, and as a retired police officer, he performs lots of training for the Ugadan police.  He and I had been trying to coordinate our schedules to share a meal, and this was the time that worked out.  He was very pleased to meet the ten or so judges who were able to attend the dinner, at least one of which he has been wanting to meet for a while.

At the dinner, the Embassy official announced a new program the US will be funding that relates directly to the work we are doing, and may very well provide an answer to the prayers we have been offering about how to pay for the aggressive training dreams the Ugandan judges and I have been dreaming about on the criminal side of the ledger.

I went to bed on Thursday with a smile on my face, knowing that two separate governments are allocating substantial resources to the very types of projects we have been delivering and planning to deliver.  We now turn our prayers toward the prospect of our grant proposals being looked upon favorably.  I have a sneaking suspicion that these developments are not the product of random chance or coincidence, but are instead providential confluences of several streams flowing in the same direction – toward efficient and effective justice for Ugandans.