IV. Observations and Findings This section of the report provides the general observations and findings of the Special Rapporteur regarding the prison regime in Ethiopia. This includes findings and observations on issues ranging from prison population, building structures and accommodation, categories of prisoners, sanitation, discipline, etc. Under each aspect, the Special Rapporteur will report on the observations and findings generally, making references to specific examples where necessary. 1. Prison population and categories of prisoners Ethiopia has a total prison population of 63,792 detained in 171 prisons. Apart from the Dire Dawa Prison, all the other detention facilities visited, including the police stations, are overcrowded, some holding inmates more than twice their capacity.3 The problem of overcrowding is more severe in the regional prisons than at federal level. In the Awasa Prison for example, the original capacity is 450 inmates, but it is holding more than 979 prisoners, more than 200% overcrowding. In Arba Minch, a prison meant for 1100 inmates is holding 1605. The overcrowding is as a result of the large number of un-sentenced prisoners. In almost all the prisons, a large proportion of the detainees are still awaiting trial or awaiting sentence. In the Addis Ababa Prison for example, more than 3242 out of the 4835 inmates, about 68% of the total inmate population have not been sentenced. In the Awasa prison, out of a total population of 979 inmates, 855 of them, that is, 87% of them are either awaiting trial or sentence.4 In the Harar Prison, 56% of inmates have not been sentenced and in Dire Dawa, in spite not being overcrowded, 67% of the inmates are yet to be sentenced. Another possible reason for the overcrowding in prisons has to do with the Ethiopian criminal procedure process. In Ethiopia, a prisoner is defined as anyone in custody – convicted as well as suspects (awaiting trialists). According to the criminal procedure process, when a suspect is arrested, he/she is detained by the arresting police officer at the police station for investigation. The law requires that the suspect be brought before the courts within 48 hours to be charged. However, if the police officer has not completed investigation, he/she may request the judge for more time. Under Ethiopian law, there seems to be no limit to the number of times a police officer can request for additional time in order to complete investigation. Thus, there are persons in police custody in Adama Woreda I Police Station for more than a month who have not been charged. 3 It should be noted here that most of the detention facilities visited were not originally meant to be prisons and as such it was difficult to determine their original capacities. 4 However, in the SNNPR as a whole, the percentage of those awaiting trial and sentence was 45%. 24 Report of the Mission of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons to Ethiopia 15 – 29 March 2004