DOC/OS(XXXIII)/324c/I
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In police stations, inmates have usually the right to receive visits on Sundays and
Wednesdays at Omaruru Police Station, all week long at Ondangwa Police Station,
where families come mainly on Saturdays, and also all week long at Mariental police
station since the arrival of new staff. In principle, prisoners have also the right to call
their family or lawyer by telephone if they have the means to pay for the call or to
buy a telephone card. It should be noted, however, that the right to communication
is not applied everywhere sometimes being subject to the whims of officers. Officers
at Omaruru Police Station stated that sometimes there were not enough staff
members to safely allow a detainee to call his/her family by phone or answer a
phone call. At Grootfontein, visits are sometimes restricted due to shortage of staff.
On the day of the visit to Rundu police station, the Special Rapporteur was informed
that for the last five months remand prisoners had no longer the right the right to
receive visits or to telephone their families. Among other things, this resulted in
inmates be refused bail. The only right that was retained was the right to write
letters. Women prisoners at Wanaheda police station and the prisoners at Walvis
Bay Police Station complained about only been able to be with their visitors for a few
minutes and under difficult conditions (there is no visiting room). Prisoners at
Ondangwa and Grootfontein police stations complained about being prevented from
communicating with their families by telephone, even when they had their own
telephone cards which means that they could not ask their families for money to pay
for bail.
Leisure, exercise, work, programmes and access to education
Generally, all prisoners — men, women and juveniles — complained about:
•
the lack of exercise: the lack of space in the courtyards restricts the possibilities
of organising sports, or even of doing physical exercises. Sporting activities
outside prison are limited. In Windhoek Prison women play netball outside prison
once a month during the winter; in Walvis Bay and Oluno prisons inmates are
allowed to play netball and volleyball occasionally;
•
the impossibility of working and earning some money and of practising the skills
learnt outside prison;
•
the absence of leisure activities (in some prisons, prisoners were allowed to
watch television in the evening until 9 pm during the week and 10 pm at the
weekend: E. Nepemba) or contacts with the outside, especially through regular
access to newspapers and radio;
•
the lack of educational programmes or professional training: at the moment, the
only activities that juveniles in E. Nepemba juvenile centre have access to, are
cleaning and literacy classes. This will continue until 2003 when the building
work is finished and the centre is up and running;
•
that only prisoners sentenced to more than three years of prison have access to
the library, and the lack of renewal or diversity in the publications available;
•
the lack of programmes to prepare prisoners in advance for their release.
The inmates in Hardap prison explained that in this context, homosexual activities
end up being considered acceptable by the inmates.
The prison administration blamed the lack of programmes on overcrowding and the
lack of qualified staff, especially of social workers.
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