Your Worship

As I walked into the living room, it was just sitting there on the printer. Waiting for me to see.

A note from Scott. Addressed to “Your Worship.”

Wow. My heart soared. Finally. It took almost 30 years but my husband finally recognized my role in our marriage and in his life.

Sadly, as I looked further I saw it was a memo. About an upcoming event at a Ugandan prison. Addressed to the Chief Magistrate of the Mukono Court, just outside Kampala. To “Your Worship.”

Crestfallen, I recalled that judicial officers here have very dignified titles. Your Worship. Your Lordship.

Today, I heard this term again. Scott was working from home and was on a “Zoom” call from one of the prisons for a specific case. As roosters crowed in the background from the prison yard (a fairly rare occurrence on most US court Zoom calls), the Prosecuting Attorney and His Worship logged on and they got down to business.

This summer, Scott worked with the Pepperdine team throughout a very strict COVID lockdown. The work they could – or could not – do changed weekly. Each prison and judicial officer interpreted the COVID protocols differently. Some prisons were closed to outside visitors. Others called daily wanting cases handled so prisoners could be released. The bottom line was that the requests for assistance from the Pepperdine team jumped significantly. There were more arrests, more people in prison and less cases resolved all on top of an existing backlog.

As soon as the lockdown eased in August, many justice system partners sought out the Pepperdine team for help in resolving this massive backlog. Scott says that his team is working at an unsustainable pace, handling sometimes dozens of cases each day. When other magistrates or prisons hear about their work, they call also seeking help.

Two weekends ago after a marathon court session where they resolved 25 cases, the Pepperdine team received lists from 15 other prisons. Lists of cases of individual men and women who were stuck in prison, some for months longer than they should have been. People who had been forgotten, too poor to post bail and too unimportant to justify any thoughts beyond being an extra mouth for the prisons to feed.

As we have written before, plea bargaining is not new in Uganda but it is fairly new in lower level courts like Mukono. Pepperdine’s expertise in helping draft plea bargaining guidelines, train judges and lawyers and implement case resolutions without trial uniquely positions this gifted team as experts with a new, powerful tool to help. As prisoners, victims, prosecutors, magistrates and jailers learn about the option, they are enthusiastic and encouraged.

For example, a 19 year-old boy stole 5 tomatoes during lockdown. He was caught in the act and the produce recovered and returned to the merchant. The boy was arrested, charged and had been imprisoned for 6 months for this crime. He had never been in Court, never seen a judge and had certainly never had an advocate. If this boy had been convicted of his crime, he would have served a sentence of around 60 days at most. But he had not been convicted, only accused. But ironically he had already served much more time waiting than he would have if convicted. Last week the Pepperdine team was able to review the case file, connect with the prosecutor and negotiate an agreement for “time served.” The tomato thief left prison that day.

This boy’s story is unfortunately common. Crime has spiked due to COVID restrictions and the resulting lack of economic opportunity and employment. People seem more desperate. There are more beggars on the streets. Children aren’t in school. Teenage pregnancy rates have soared.

And the prisons are full. Hijacking the words of Luke 10:2 – the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Thankfully, this summer there were more workers. A team of interns from law schools at Pepperdine, Regent and Boston College came for several weeks to Kampala. Despite an ever-tightening lockdown the Pepperdine team (with an assist from the interns) were able to resolve almost 80 cases from late May through early July, despite several weeks of strict lockdown. 21 of those clients were immediately released after their cases were resolved.

The Pepperdine team showed up and people went free.

So many more prisoners are waiting for their turn.

Pray for more workers, access to the prisons and case files (a future blog post), health for the team and continued favor with the Ugandan Judiciary. God is moving.