A Prisoner’s Dilemma

Prison terrifies me.  As I would think it terrifies just about every average person.

A prison in Uganda sounds beyond frightening.  I have yet to venture inside of one and that is something I hope doesn’t change throughout my service.  Now in Kitgum the prison is conveniently located next to a primary school, ironically called Prison Primary. 

Don’t even get me started on this.

The Meeting Point office just opened up yesterday and when I arrived I noticed everyone there except for one of our very beloved counselors.  I did not inquire of his whereabouts; simply assuming he took a prolonged holiday.

Today he came into the office.

Let me preface this post by saying that I absolutely adore this person.  This person does an incredible amount of work and is highly respected by all.  This person invited me to his family’s home for Independence Day after a few short weeks of knowing me.  While sometimes he is quiet, get him in a corner and he will inspire and share his stories.  Plus he guessed my exact birthday - day, month, and year - without any previous information.  Impressed yet?

Well he was incarcerated for the past week.

You can only imagine the dumbstruck look on my face and my extreme sense of empathy for him. 

I did not inquire about the details but he was an open book.   

He has a fiancé who found herself pregnant.  She went to tell her parents who then found this person. 

They took him to prison.  Simple as that.

The reason?  The parents said that their daughter was less than 18 years of age.

This ended up in this person living in a dirty crowded jail cell with 20 other men.  Oh and their jail cell is comparable to one in America.  Small.  He ate one meal a day and was allowed to use the latrine two times, once in the morning and once in the evening.

Some of the other employees got ahold of this information and went to visit him.  He then gave them the name of the girl in hopes of them finding legitimate documents on her age.  After some days the other employees were able to find out that her real age is 20 so the incarceration was unreasonable, hence his release yesterday. 

I simply cannot fathom his experience.  I feel awful

And here is the most outrageous part.

The parents are requiring him to pay 900,000 Ugandan Shillings, $360USD, for them to transport to Kitgum Town from their village, which they conveniently returned to since his custody.  On top of that they want 16,000,000 UGX, $6,400USD.

For what? 

I am not sure exactly. 

They also are requiring him to pay for the school fees of his fiancé. 

This will essentially bankrupt him. 

I inquired with him whether or not this is a “normal” reaction.  He explained that sometimes the parents will request money but all of this together was unusual and I would have to agree.

At this point I believe that the parents are trying to get a large sum of cash from him, which unfortunately will probably be supported by the police.  The other possibility is that the girl could be lying about her pregnancy to get money and her school fees covered.

I am praying this is not the case.

For now he is back and work and we are excited to have him back.