On 30th August 2022 at Kigali Marriot Hotel, Transparency International Rwanda (TI-RW), in partnership with Legal Aid Forum (LAF), launched the findings of the “Policy Research on the Implementation of Alternatives to imprisonment in Rwanda”.
The launching event brought on board different actors and stakeholders in the criminal justice chain in Rwanda who pledged to harmonize their collaboration to overcome challenges and implement recommendations provided by the research. The main objective of the study is to promote effective implementation of alternatives to imprisonment for improved access to justice.
In her welcome remarks, TI-RW Chairperson Ms. Marie Immaculée Ingabire underscored that “alternatives to imprisonment serve to reduce pressures on prison apparatus by reducing pre-trial detention and prison overcrowding.”
“There are various alternatives that can be used as a means to punish and rehabilitate offenders.” TI-RW Chairperson added :
The Guest of Honor, Mr. Théophile Mbonera, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, reiterated that the findings of the research will enable all stakeholders to undertake “further steps to fully and optimally ensure implementation of alternatives to imprisonment”.
“We can’t fail to recognize that if optimally applied, alternatives to imprisonment would help to solve a number of issues related to imprisonment such as reducing the prison population to a rather normal rate…” Mbonera added.

“The use of alternatives to imprisonment is the solution to overcrowding in prisons. Prison systems suffer from flaws such as extreme high costs of building & maintenance. It also has negative long-term impacts on inmates and their families," Said Andrew Kananga, the Legal Aid Forum Executive Director.

A quick look at the research methodology and findings

The research used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to enable researchers to assess the implementation of alternatives to imprisonment, assess the effectiveness of alternatives to imprisonment and understand the role of alternatives to imprisonment for improved access to justice.
This study involved judges, prosecutors and advocates whereby advocates were the majority (56.55%) of respondents who participated in the survey, followed by judges (31.84%). The respondents’ characteristics in terms gender reveal that the majority of male respondents (62.17%) participated in the survey as opposed to female (37.83%). This shows the predominance of male practitioners in the legal field.
This report provides the findings on the availability of alternatives to imprisonment, their role in promoting access to justice, persons qualified to benefit from alternatives to imprisonment, sanctions for failure to comply with alternatives to imprisonment, obstacles related to the implementation of alternatives to imprisonment, effectiveness of the implementation of alternatives to implementation, strategies to improve the implementation of alternatives to imprisonment and recommendations.
On the availability of alternatives to imprisonment, the study found out that there exist many alternatives to imprisonment in Rwanda. For example, at the pretrial stage, authorities (investigators, prosecutors and judges) empowered to impose alternatives to imprisonment have at their disposal different alternatives to imprisonment which include bail , compensation , negotiations , fine without trial and some measures such a person to do one or more of these conditions : to remain at a specific address, to report on a daily or periodic basis to a specified authority, to surrender passports or other identification papers and to accept supervision by electronic tagging and tracking .
However, the study found out that Rwanda is facing a problem of overcrowded prisons. The data available show that the share of detainees to the overall prison population is very high. The proportion of pretrial detainees (for common law offenses only) remains high at 18% of all inmates as of May 2022.
Though there exist the problems prison overcrowding and access to justice, the study found out that the existing alternative measures to imprisonment can play valuable roles in reducing prison overcrowding and in promoting access to justice. In general, it was found out the frequent use of alternatives to imprisonment can reduce prison overcrowding (97.38%), reduce financial costs of imprisonment (98.5%) and protect the right to be presumed innocent until guilt is proven (95.51%).
The study recommended to amend the 2018 Law on offences and penalties in general and abolish all offenses with mandatory minimum sentences ; put in place a criminal justice policy which would clearly explain the implementation of alternatives to imprisonment ; and prohibit the use of pre-trial detention for all offences which can be punished by a fine or community service as alternative to imprisonment. It also recommended to speed up the publication of different orders on the implementation of different alternatives to imprisonment ; provide adequate resources (human, financial and infrastructure) to all institutions in charge of implementing alternatives to imprisonment for an effective implementation of alternatives ; and organize regular trainings and public awareness campaigns on alternatives to imprisonment.