Juvenile offenders of Torit prison serving long sentences for capital offences like murder, rape, and the like are usually seen as forgotten human beings. Thankfully, an on-going restructuring programme in the prison is putting smiles back on the faces of especially six beneficiaries of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) in the prison. The six emerged as overall best candidates for the primary leaving examination in 2018 for the whole Torit area.

 “Prison is not a dumping ground but a correctional facility for offenders!” says Luka Odong, the Officer-in-Charge of Religious and Education Affairs in Torit prison.

The prison school is a long-time beneficiary of teaching materials from the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and guided support for human rights issues from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Prison authorities hope for the opportunity to make secondary school education accessible to juveniles.

“We thank God that we excelled in the exams. I am pleading with government and other partners such as AVSI [Italian non-profit organization], UNMISS, and UNICEF to support the establishment of a secondary school here in the prison so we can continue with our education while we serve our sentences,” poured out Peter*, one of the juvenile offenders.

“I thank God that I scored 347 marks out of 500 in the five subjects I sat for. I am also grateful to our director of education for guiding us in our studies,” said Victor*, the overall best performing candidate in the prison.

The success of the students is attributed to the tireless effort of three committed prison officers who volunteered to teach.

“The three teachers sacrificed and taught without any pay. If there is motivation to encourage and attract more teachers it would help us move forward,” said Luka Odong.

The state ministry of education is looking into the feasibility of establishing a secondary school in the prison, but according to Longejuk Vitale, Acting Torit Minister of Education, “it will have to be after distribution of results to the examination centre.”

*Peter and Victor’s second names have been withheld to protect them because they are minors.