Founder

The fact that you are reading this page means that you probably have some interest in the work of the African Prisons Project and issues relating to criminal justice in Africa. My interest in this field arose in 2004 when I was on a gap year in Uganda between leaving school and starting university.

As part of this trip I spent three months at Mulago Hospital, Uganda’s national referral hospital. My time here was spent on a ward for people with tuberculosis, with patients who had no family or others to care for them. Almost all of the patients I bathed, fed, prayed with and sought treatment for were living with HIV or AIDS. Almost all of them died, often in miserable circumstances.

Many of these patients were prisoners. I noted that they were a similar age to me and were often in prison for relatively minor offences, like idling, trespass or having under age sex. The prisoners I served were often handcuffed to the beds and received little treatment. Meeting them made me decide to visit the maximum security prison located at Luzira in Kampala, built in 1927 for 600 inmates but now holding 3000. My time at this prison, combined with my experiences at Mulago Hospital, changed my life.

Initially I didn’t consider prisoners in Africa as particularly worthy of support. However, over the last seven years the men, women and children I have met in prisons all over the continent have challenged me and my beliefs. Almost all the people we meet in prison are poor, many of them are alone, less than one in ten will ever have access to a lawyer and many will wait in prison for five years or more without having a trial.

I am a Christian and my faith has certainly motivated me in my work, though from the very beginning I worked alongside and served people of all faiths and none. The first volunteers to come with me to work in prisons in Kenya and Uganda included Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and atheists and the same diversity is true of our patrons, staff, volunteers, advisors, partners and beneficiaries today. I gained tremendous inspiration from my grandmother, Aileen Lily Chapple (1910-2005). Like the rest of my family, she contributed to my feeling that with a family’s encouragement, love and support, our potential is tremendous. Many people in prison lacked this. In a small way, I hope that APP’s staff and volunteers can offer this to them. I have been inspired by Dr Anne Merriman, Founder of Hospice Africa, Uganda. The holistic approach taken by the Hospice to palliative care is something we have tried to replicate at APP. Time at Hospice Africa changed my life. I am grateful to Dr Anne and all her staff, especially to Sam Chemery, who was gate keeper at the Hospice and worked alongside me to assist prisoners in Mulago Hospital and at Upper Prison during 2004.

I hope that after reading something about our work you will decide that you want to join with us in striving to assist men, women and children in prisons in Africa to live with dignity and hope.

Thanks for reading,

Alexander McLean