Tanzania launches program to improve criminal justice system's service delivery

The Tanzanian government on Tuesday launched a transformation program to improve the quality and standard of the criminal justice system’s service delivery.

Speaking in the country’s capital, Dodoma, at the launch of the program, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said the program should come up with solutions to ease the crowdedness of inmates in prisons.

“There are so many cases that would not reach the courts yet they end up there and forcing suspects to be remanded,” Majaliwa said.

The transformation should also focus on the provision of entrepreneurship skills to inmates and those who are remanded to enable them to carry out productive activities for the prisons to stop depending on the central government to cover the costs of inmates’ food, he said.

He said the program should also address other challenges facing the criminal justice system such as bribery, cases hearing delay and people being remanded without apparent reason.

Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs Augustine Mahiga said his ministry decided to undertake criminal justice system transformation to cope with current social, economic, political, environmental and technological changes.

“Based on the development agenda, transformation initiatives in the criminal justice subsector are inevitable as they form an engine of the economic growth of the country which accelerates attaining Tanzania Development Vision of 2025,” he said.

GNA