3S: Sports, Health, and Socialisation

Context

In spite of the health crisis and the sporadic releases from overcrowded prisons, custodial overcrowding in Côte d’Ivoire is still quite significant (+316% according to BAP). This situation entails hard living conditions especially with the younger inmates (girls and boys) in Juvenile Observation Centres (COMs). The latter expects support that takes into account children’s physical and social well-being through practising the sport and ensuring their social re-integration.

In this respect, BAP has been advocating sports for all, practised everywhere by everybody since 2017 in keeping with the Ivorian government’s initiatives to enhance the role custodial sports play with imprisoned women and youths. The objective is to provide these minors with care and support and to efficiently prepare their re-integration in the society.

Objectives

• Contributing to underage delinquents’ improved physical and psychic health and taking part in their socialisation through sport
• Improving imprisoned minors’ physical and moral health through football, proposing a space of freedom to incarcerated people and combating detention’s adverse effects
• Improving imprisoned minors’ physical and psychological health in a sporting context and making sure the necessary reforms are implemented to abide by imprisoned children’s basic rights with national authorities
• Providing for socialisation and helping change the image the society holds on people in detention

Activities

• Developing sporting programmes (practising football on a weekly basis, discovering other sports)
• Setting up a sustainable health tracking mechanism of imprisoned people to identify this population group’s health needs and their evolution with time, and to henceforth, guide the health care system
• Sporting contests with external teams so as to keep in touch with somebody outside the centres
• Celebration and media coverage of events of thematic debates focused on human rights

Impacts

• 270 youngsters incarcerated in the COMs of Abidjan, Bouaké and Man who have been either indicted or awaiting trial
• 34 COM management personnel members and 96 male and female external team members
• 240 imprisoned youngsters’ families and the communities they belong to.

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