Prison Reform In Conflict-Affected Contexts: Evidence From Somaliland

Puntland and Somaliland

A civil war has affected Somalia for many decades but has in recent years mainly been concentrated to southern and central Somalia. In 2012, to enhance stability, Somalia was divided into six federal states that were partly divided along clan lines. Clans are culturally constructed through claims of common ancestors, family, kinships, and regions with a shared language and cultural heritage. These sociocultural identities have become a determinate for the groups’ social interaction, access to economic resources, and political power (Mamdani 1996). The influence of clans in public institutions is partly inherited from the colonial divide-and-rule strategies (Abdi and Kon 2019).

The autonomous states in northern Somalia – Puntland and Somaliland – have experienced a fairly peaceful development, while the central government has been at war with al-Shabaab, operating mainly in the south and central regions. Both states are self-governing and relatively stable political formations, but while Puntland aims to maintain its status as a semi-autonomous state, Somaliland has sought international recognition as an independent state since 1991.

External military and non-military interventions in Somalia have for decades built on a narrative of Somalia as a ‘failed state’, a concept that has been much criticized by academics (e.g. Hill 2005). Moreover, international interventions have downplayed the role of religion in building the rule of law in Somalia (Massoud 2020), despite the fact that Islam is the state religion and a unitary force in the country (Elliesie 2012). Following the disintegration of Somalia’s state institutions, shari’a court mediation settled disputes before a judge and provided alternatives to resorting to violence (Massoud 2020). Similarly, customary law (xeer) has provided order where state structures and secular institutions have been weak, and it is described as a form of social contract consisting of fluid customs and unwritten agreements (Leonard and Samantar 2011). Currently, customary law (xeer), religious law (shari’a), and secular law coexist, but it has been argued that there is an absence of clearly defined working relationships between the three forms of justice (Interpeace and Puntland Development Research Center 2015).

Imprisonment

The prison population in Somaliland is approximately 5000, hosted in facilities built for 4000 inmates.¹ While older data is unverifiable, current estimates suggest that the prison population could have doubled in the past decade, from 2000 inmates in Somaliland in 2011 (DCAF 2017). In Puntland, recent estimates put the total prison population at 792 in the four prisons Garowe, Bosaso, Gardo and Galkayo. In the most recent count, only eight inmates were women and 245 (30%) were detained on remand (Kaalo Aid and Development Organisation 2019). The actual number of inmates may be higher. Somalia is one of three countries in the world where official data on pre-trial detainees is not available (Walmsley 2020).

Community sanctions and parole are not practiced in Somaliland or Puntland in the formal judiciary. While the Puntland 1963 Penal Code supports conditional release after having served half of the prison time (with a minimum of 25 years for persons imprisoned for life), it is not used in practice. The president occasionally releases prisoners through amnesty during national celebrations (Kaalo Aid and Development Organisation 2019). The various judicial systems in Puntland and Somaliland sometimes issue death sentences, in particular for terrorism-related offenses. Both Puntland and Somaliland have recently carried out executions, including of minors (Amnesty International 2022).

Prison reform

Prison reform in Somalia is decentralized and performed by multiple actors. Identified challenges include a lack of qualified, trained, and equipped personnel, poor infrastructure and working conditions, and weak accountability and oversight mechanisms. Currently, a joint UN agency program is underway to establish an independent, capable, accountable, and efficient corrections service (United Nations Development Programme 2022). The program targets the construction of prison facilities, capacity-building of prison staff, and rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners (United Nations Development Programme 2022, 57). UNODC has been engaged in prison reform in Puntland and Somaliland since 2009. The Counter Piracy Programme commenced from the need to safely and in accordance with international minimum standards incarcerate Somalis convicted of piracy (UNODC 2012). Furthermore, the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has corrections advisers in Garowe and Hargeisa providing strategic policy advice and capacity building to support Somaliland’s and Puntland’s prisons (United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia 2021).

Hargeisa Central Prison is an all-male facility refurbished and officially opened in 2010, whereas Garowe Prison is a mixed-gender prison built in 2014. The improved prisons were meant to address a broad prison reform agenda, including for example human rights, sanitation, medical support, and vocational training programmes (United Nations Security Council 2014). Like elsewhere, the UNODC programs in Puntland and Somaliland focus on strengthening staff capacity through a ‘coaching and mentoring approach’ (Haldrup and Rosén 2013, 140). The program has included physical improvements of prison buildings, as well as addressing prison procedures and training staff in human rights standards. This is in line with the UN policy on prison support in peacekeeping operations, which seeks ‘to equip national prison systems with the minimum capacities required to deliver safe, secure, humane and lawful imprisonment’ (United Nations 2015, 4). Hargeisa prison in particular has been portrayed as a state-of-the-art institution. Researchers have challenged this and argued that the narrative has mainly served a ‘penal market’ where high-profile prisoners are captured and held in exchange for development aid, resulting in fuelling imprisonment in the region (Gilmer 2017, 127; Gilmer and Comerford 2019). More prison reform projects are currently underway in different parts of Somalia. Phase I of the Mogadishu Prison and Court Complex was inaugurated for Al-Shabaab-associated and piracy inmates in 2019, and new prisons will be built in Galkayo, Kismayo, and Baidoa (United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia 2021).

Prison conditions

Despite the focus of the prison reform on humane and secure detention conditions in line with international human rights, the majority of the prisoners interviewed took the opportunity to raise issues related to prison conditions in the interviews. Access to healthcare was commonly reported as one of the main concerns of prisoners during the interviews: ‘There is no healthcare at all in here. The food and water are poor quality. Life is very difficult in here’ (Interview, inmate 40, Garowe Prison). The staff confirmed that health issues were often the most frequent complaint from prisoners. The staff further explained that international actors had provided support for health services in the prison but the support had not been continuous.

Lack of hygiene and detergent products for cleaning were also a common concern in both prisons: ‘The hygiene is not good at all, we don’t receive soap to clean ourselves and our cells. We only get soap for our laundry once a month’ (Interview, inmate 16, Hargeisa Central Prison). Although access to healthcare and material concerns are prevalent in Puntland and Somaliland outside the prison, imprisonment itself and sharing cells, often with more than 10 other inmates, seemed to exacerbate the health concerns. One of the inmates explained that ‘as long as I am in prison I will never feel good’ (Interview, inmate 14, Hargeisa Central Prison). Others were worried about their own health or the spread of illnesses due to the prison conditions. This was despite the fact that the inmates did not generally complain about sharing their cells or living space. Relations between inmates were generally considered good. Some inmates even refer to a form of brotherhood between the inmates, coming from living close together and sharing the same situation: ‘I do feel most of the time that there is a sense of brotherhood between all inmates’ (Interview, inmate 10, Hargeisa Central Prison).

Support from families compensated for the material deficiencies. A majority of the inmate respondents said that they received regular support from family members while in prison. Material support such as food and hygiene products were normally provided by family members during weekly visits. This made the inmates lacking family support particularly vulnerable. One inmate from Garowe explained: ‘here is almost no nutrition, only rice. We get support from our families, if you don’t have any family, you are in trouble’ (Interview, inmate 72, Garowe Prison). The inmates who received no support from their families were most often from out of town and their families lacked the financial means to visit. Some inmates said that their families had cut off contact due to the inmate’s behavior, for example, substance abuse or repeated crimes. The family situations of the prisoners were diverse; while many prisoners were married with one or more wives and had children, some were minors and others had divorced because of the imprisonment. Despite the importance of the families for the prison conditions and well-being of the inmates, to the knowledge of the authors, no reform interventions had sought to include families or addressed particularly vulnerable inmates.

Lack of resources in the prisons as well as sporadic support from international actors for health interventions partly explain the inmates’ worries for their basic needs. However, prevailing prison practices also contribute to the issue. In both Garowe and Hargeisa, during the time of the interviews, there was no standard health check of prisoners on arrival to the prison, nor any medical or criminal records kept of inmates. During imprisonment, interactions between staff and inmates were often few. Thus, gathering information about inmates’ well-being and responding to their needs was indisputably challenging. One-fourth of the staff members interviewed in Garowe stated that they had limited literacy skills which hindered written record-keeping.

Building security through imprisonment

A key purpose for the prison reform programs in Hargeisa and Garowe was the incapacitation of high-risk prisoners convicted of piracy, and, later, terrorism offenses (Gilmer 2017; United Nations Security Council 2014). Today, both prisons host prisoners convicted of serious crimes, including murder, rape and terrorism. The reform has strengthened the physical barriers of the prisons, and aimed to move so-called high-risk inmates into separate blocks. The improved physical infrastructure was appreciated by both staff and inmates. Staff respondents in both prisons further described substantial progress in developing a security regime thanks to staff training and separation of inmates. The interviews in both prisons highlighted that inmates with similar crimes or sentences were housed together. Consideration was also given to the inmates’ age. However, being suspected of a serious violent crime was enough for an inmate to be placed among the ‘high-risk’ group of convicted inmates.

Important for the role of prisons in Puntland and Somaliland is that incarceration to correct wrongdoing is interpreted more broadly than breaches of secular law, to also include harm according to customary law and shari’a. A large proportion of the prison population were made up of so-called ‘rehabilitation inmates’. The rehabilitation inmates are difficult to risk-assess as they have committed crimes specific to the context, including smoking, drinking alcohol, or disobeying a parent. Some are under 18 years old. Reportedly, they are sent to prison as there is no other institution available. Although there was no crime registry in the prison, at the time of research, UNODC staff working in the Garowe prison estimated that one-third of the inmates were serving time for disobedience against their families. Females residing in the prison (there were none at the time of research) are reportedly often there for disobedience; attempting to leave the home for Europe was given as an example.⁴ In the prison, there is no distinction between inmates sent to prison by the court on request of their family and inmates suspected or convicted under the formal criminal code. Given the significant part of the prison population made up by rehabilitation inmates and the lack of resources in prison, making such a distinction would be a significant task for the prison.

The general separation of inmates between blocks does not mean that prisoners are always placed appropriately in the ‘correct’ block, and cells are mixed. One inmate, who was charged with disobedience against his father (for chewing khat), described being housed in a high-risk block: ‘The inmates are all in one place and it is scary to be with the murderers. In my cell, eight out of the 14 inmates that I share a cell with are murderers’ (Interview, inmate 2, Hargeisa Central Prison). At the time of the interviews, young inmates convicted of minor crimes were occasionally housed with alleged al-Shabaab members. UNODC has since then worked for the separation of minors but the sustainability of these efforts is still unclear.

The interviews from Hargeisa highlighted that prison placement procedures in Somaliland were complicated by taking into account traditional forms of justice. Consideration was taken to whether the offender’s and victim’s families had agreed on compensation for the crime. An agreement is likely to shorten the sentence length and also reduce the perceived risk level of the inmate. Hence, actual high-risk offenders may be placed in low-risk blocks, due to family influence. A prison guard explained about his low-risk block: ‘If I have a guy with a murder sentence … it is usually someone whose family and the family of the victim came to an agreement. Blood money has already been paid’ (Interview, staff member 7, Hargeisa Central Prison).

As the prison population contains a large proportion of low-risk offenders and potentially innocent citizens, there is a risk of so-called ‘contamination’. Several staff respondents alluded to this and argued that the separation of inmates into distinct blocks would prevent vulnerable inmates, such as underaged inmates and petty criminals, from being exposed to repeat offenders, violent criminals, and the risk of radicalization by terrorist convicts. However, issues with prison intake and administration processes as well as a lack of staff members seemed to prohibit implementation.

Both prisons, but especially Hargeisa Central Prison, have the ambition to work according to ‘dynamic security’. Beyond physical security, the concept entails available and trained staff with a professional approach to and respectful treatment of inmates. Staff said they ‘are trained to treat prisoners with dignity and respect’ (Interview, staff member 22, Garowe Prison). According to some respondents in Hargeisa Prison, they feel that ‘there are ways of dealing with incidents without mistreat[ment]’ (Interview, staff member 5, Hargeisa Central Prison). One staff interviewee explained: ‘They listen to us and we respect each other. They obey our rules and if they have any complaints, we take them seriously’ (Interview, staff member 9, Garowe Prison). The staff respondents in Garowe felt that the respectful relations with the inmates made their work in the prison easier and ‘minimize the risks of riots or even jailbreaks’ (Interview, staff member 20, Garowe Prison). One possible risk was the spread of extremist ideas by radicalized inmates. Staff believed it was most important to protect young offenders and those with mental illness because of maltreatment in the justice system. ‘We try to keep the prisoners who are against the government or the justice system, away from terrorists or other extreme prisoners’ (Interview, staff member 3, Hargeisa Central Prison). While the staff had come a long way in terms of establishing norms of dynamic security, the low staff-to-inmate ratio hindered any longer interactions between staff and individual inmates. Furthermore, although the relationships between staff and inmates were generally described as good, some inmates in Garowe mentioned being isolated by the staff, and a couple of inmates mentioned beatings by the prison staff.

Access to justice

The respondents frequently referred to injustices. In Garowe in particular, many inmate respondents had not had a trial, did not know their release date, and described a general confusion about the justice system. Some inmates on remand had been in prison without a formal trial for as long as two years (Interview, inmate 28, Garowe Prison; Interview, inmate 57, Garowe Prison). Another group that raised justice issues was the so-called rehabilitation inmates. A court agrees to send the person to prison following a short judiciary process in front of a judge where the family member states the harm done: ‘my family just suddenly put me in jail’ (Interview, inmate 51, Garowe Prison). The length of their prison sentence is at their families’ discretion, which causes a lot of stress ‘I have no idea [when I will be released]. It depends when my family and clan want to release me’ (Interview, inmate 34, Garowe Prison). The rehabilitation inmates are a good example of the overlap between the formal and customary systems. One interviewee who was charged with chewing khat and smoking cigarettes described his imprisonment as an arbitrary arrest, in which a visit to the court was mainly a ‘check the box’ exercise: ‘I’m not satisfied, I didn’t do any crime. They just arrested me, then I was brought to court and then I was transferred to prison directly’ (Interview, inmate 70, Garowe Prison). While respondents in Hargeisa usually had had a trial, some also described issues within the formal justice system including corruption, bribes, and a lack of legal representation. One community interviewee explained: ‘In my opinion, the justice system is very much like a prepaid phone. If you want justice you have to pay beforehand. The [justice] system needs to be reformed totally and justice should not be bought’ (Interview with a community representative, Hargeisa). The lack of due diligence meant that imprisonment was considered arbitrary and unjust. Proportionality was also a key concern. For example, those convicted of minor and serious violent offenses had occasionally received the same sentence length.

Beyond serious shortcomings in the justice process, the interviews and focus group discussions in Garowe and Hargeisa clearly pointed to the added complexity of prisons’ role in the justice process. The findings showed that justice is often collective rather than individualized. If a person is harmed, his or her entire family is considered to have been victimized. Imprisonment through a formal court order was just one avenue to achieve retribution in Puntland and Somaliland, as prisons (representing the formal criminal justice system) coexist with clan processes for retribution by xeer and shari’a. To be sent to prison was explained as a last resort when other avenues to justice had failed. The various forms of justice were captured by an inmate in prison for manslaughter: ‘I don’t oppose the conviction that I have been given because shari’a law says if you kill someone then you have to either be killed, pay money to the victim’s family or be put in prison’ (Interview, inmate 35, Garowe Prison). The interviews found that people often end up in prison after family or clan dialogues had failed to come to an agreement on compensation. The inmates interviewed believed that their clan held the key to their release from prison: ‘This is in my clan members’ hands, so it depends on when they have negotiated with the other clan, the amount they want me to pay to be released’ (Interview, inmate 32, Garowe Prison).

A prison sentence was often not considered enough to achieve justice and many inmates’ sentences included monetary compensation to the victim – either in the form of penal fines as part of their formal sentence or so-called ‘blood money’ (compensation for physical injuries to the victim) in customary court. Several respondents said that they lacked prospects of ever paying their fine, forcing them to stay in prison after their term: ‘the monetary compensation is the reason I am still in the prison even though I already finished my sentence’ (Interview, inmate 10, Hargeisa Central Prison). Imprisonment is arbitrary as inmates may be released from prison if compensation is paid or if the families can come to an agreement. The monetary compensation caused inequalities based on family/clan support and economic resources, as those who lack resources will end up staying in prison for undefined times.

Constructing large new prisons may have contributed to the imprisonment of these individuals. The capacity for imprisonment is greater and families may be more willing to send their members to new institutions that get international support. The prevalence of rehabilitation inmates highlights the consequences of prison reform in contexts where other institutions are weak or non-existent, or where the particularities of local justice processes are not fully considered.

Rehabilitation in the prison

One of the objectives of the UN prison reform ‘is to contribute to the successful reintegration of prisoners into society following their release’ (UNODC 2023). According to the UN, rehabilitation activities are considered pathways to reintegration. Both community and staff interviewees viewed rehabilitative efforts in prison positively and believed in inmate rehabilitation: ‘a person that was a thief when he came to us does not have to leave as a thief. People can change and this can be a place where they can change’ (Interview, staff member 5, Hargeisa Central Prison). Several staff members describe their own professional roles as to help inmates reform. Finding religion, giving up pro-criminal attitudes, and ‘taking life more serious’ were mentioned as positive changes in inmates observed by staff respondents. According to one staff member: ‘The best way to rehabilitate the prisoners is to treat them with respect, like human beings, and show them that the way they are behaving is against our culture, our religion, that they are pushing themselves outside the mainstream’ (Interview, staff member 3, Hargeisa Central Prison). Even though some were skeptical about the prospects of a rehabilitation program for al-Shabaab members, many believed that it would be possible to also reach high-risk prisoners with rehabilitation programs.

Several interviewees, however, raised concerns about the possibility of inmates to improve under existing prison conditions and believed that time in prison might have the opposite effect. As one staff interviewee from Garowe prison explained: ‘If a person is denied his basic rights to justice, he loses trust and might as well get angry and hateful towards the system. As the Somali proverb says, an angry man chooses hell’ (Interview, staff member 19, Garowe Prison). Staff respondents in both Garowe and Hargeisa expressed their concern with inmates being kept in prison without much to do: ‘I think it is good to have programs for them so they can be kept busy instead of walking around with nothing to do. There is a Somali proverb that says an idle mind is the devil’s workshop’ (Interview, staff member 22, Garowe Prison). Deteriorating mental health among the high-risk inmates, who spend more time in their cells and have long imprisonment times, was also brought up: ‘They don’t talk much and are more paranoid. Their long prison sentences have had a big effect on their behavior’ (Interview, staff member 10, Garowe Prison). Several staff respondents raised concerns regarding the prospects of successfully handling mentally ill persons sent to prison by the courts. ‘Mentally unfit’ regularly appeared at admission (there is no other facility to send them to), but neither the staff nor the prisons are capable of handling them (Interview, staff member 3, Hargeisa Central Prison). Thus, prisons end up isolating individuals with mental disorders from the rest of society and are required to allocate resources to their incarceration.

The large majority of inmates are described as affected by a lack of activities in prison and suffer from boredom. The only recurring activities in Hargeisa at the time of the interviews were limited basic educational classes, religious studies, and religious service. In Garowe, no formal religious services were provided in the prison. Offering basic education in prison was viewed positively but the need for literacy courses was greater in Garowe. In Garowe, one-third of the inmate respondents, and almost as large a proportion of staff respondents, had limited literacy. Religious services offered in Hargeisa and occasional visits by preachers or imams in Garowe were appreciated and well attended. There is no mosque in either prison. Both staff and community respondents underlined the need for religious education as a part of a prison-based rehabilitation and reintegration program for inmates.

While some vocational training and recreational activities were sporadically offered, they had not been sustained over time. Many of the activities were funded by international actors, mainly UNODC, although especially in Hargeisa the local authorities were increasingly responsible for prison education. All inmates and most staff respondents believed that allowing inmates skill-developing activities would be the best way to use prison time, to aid reintegration and prevent recidivism. All inmate respondents stated that they would participate in vocational training if it was offered to them in prison. Staff members confirmed their responses: ‘They are very eager to get skills and knowledge so that they can integrate back into the community. I think even terrorist convicts would participate because they don’t have anything else to do and this will help them in their life’ (Interview, staff member 20, Hargeisa Central Prison). Yet, faced with limited resources and a shortage of staff, just maintaining basic services in the prisons is a constant battle. In Garowe, staff salaries were only paid sporadically. The prison staff said they did not have the resources or capacity to organize skill-building activities themselves without external engagement. Staff respondents listed many obstacles to implementing vocational trainings, such as a lack of space, a shortage of material and staff, and frequent power cuts, as well as security concerns about inmates having access to items that could be used as weapons. A problem in the past has been that participation was only available to a small number of prisoners, and ‘the same kind of people always benefit and the same kind of people always get left behind’ (Interview, staff member 2, Hargeisa Central Prison). This reflects the UN’s focus on a subset of offenders. Besides vocational training, respondents saw a need for sports activities and socio-psychological support. Addressing values and attitudes was also suggested, ‘to teach the prisoners about a better life’ (Interview, staff member 20, Hargeisa Central Prison).