In order to enhance the implementation of Community Service, the following activities are currently going on:

 Ø  I ssuance and Management of Community Service Orders

Identification and follow up of eligible offenders for Community Service is going on in all courts country wide. Members of District Community Service Committees liaise with Prisons staff to identify those who qualify and arrangements are made for them to appear in court and have their cases disposed by way of Community Service Orders

 Supervision and Monitoring of offenders has been intensified to reduce abscondment and recidivism to less than 2%.

Ø  Improving Institutional and stakeholder Capacity Building

Community Service projects are being established and supported with equipment in 5 districts to act as learning centers to the offenders and surrounding communities. The Districts are Sembabule and Nakaseke in the Central Region, Mbarara and Rukungiri in the West, and Oyam District in Northern Uganda. The projects include Solid waste management-sorting, recycling and re-use-, Tree Nursery bed development, Tree planting, Brick making and Laying.

 These projects will enhance the skills and core abilities of offenders to start their own income generating projects.

Further still, the projects will be advocacy and publicity tools to neighboring communities and other districts on the benefits of the Community Service programs.

Ø  Benchmarking

Different Staff have been dispatched to different countries such as the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa on a Community Service benchmarking exercise. The lessons and best practices will be contextualised and replicated in Uganda.

Ø  Training

Training workshops for Local Council Courts, courts of first instance are being organized to enable them issue Community Service Orders as empowered by the Judicial Powers Act 1995 and Local Councils Act 2006.

 All training manuals are being revised to update them to cater for the different stakeholder categories in a changing environment. The categories include magistrates, Court clerks, prosecutors, Supervisors and Police, Prisons and Probation Officers.

A training manual will be developed for elders and opinion leaders to enable them incorporate the best acceptable traditional justice in Community Service.

 The recently developed counseling module for offenders to enhance their successful re-entry and integration in society is being tested. On feedback, the module will be disseminated to supervisors and Heads of placement institutions to guide them in counseling offenders

Ø  Advocacy and Publicity

Community Service multi-lingual Brochures, Posters and fluorescent jackets are continuously distributed to stakeholder departments-Prisons, Police stations, Community and Health Centres, and all places of public orientation to create and increase awareness on the program.

 However all the print materials are being reviewed to update them with current information and pictures customized to the needs in different regions.

 Radio talk shows, jingles and skits are being run on different community radios and Fm stations to increase awareness and acceptability of the program.