• In any given year, there are about 10 million people held in pre-trial detention in the world’s prisons and jails. [1]
• In 2012, the IJM team and its partners estimated that 15-30% of prisoners awaiting trial in Nairobi’s Industrial Remand Prison alone may be victims of police abuse.
• A study by the Kenyan Independent Policing Oversight Authority found that in nearly 2 out of every 3 felony cases examined that went to full trial, police never gathered enough evidence to charge (let alone convict) the accused person with a crime. [2]

Arbitrary Arrest & Detention

People living in poverty can be imprisoned on the basis of a mere accusation, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even for being unable to pay a bribe to a corrupt officer.

Without an advocate, victims of false imprisonment can waste away in jail for years of their life—in fact, experts have identified cases in which Kenyan prisoners have been detained up to 17 years before receiving a trial.[3] Court proceedings are often held in official languages—a language the falsely accused person may not speak or understand—and translators are not provided.

For a family struggling in poverty, imprisonment of an innocent breadwinner means that necessities like food, education, shelter, clothing and medicine can slip out of reach. They may be forced to relocate to insecure housing, or take their children out of school to work because they cannot afford the fees. Most families cannot afford to visit their loved ones in prison.

Police Brutality

In many places in the world, “torture remains a routine part of police work to extract confessions or other information from suspects who refuse to ‘cooperate.’” [4]

With insufficient training on professional methods of investigation and little accountability, corrupt police officers may physically assault and even murder without suffering consequences. The terrifying result is that billions of people living in poverty live in communities where the police not only fail to protect them from violence but commit violence themselves.

IJM combats police abuse of power in Nairobi, Kenya.

PROTECT VICTIMS FROM VIOLENCE

We identify victims detained without evidence, investigate the case to prove their innocence, and represent them in court to secure their freedom and an acquittal of the false charges against them.

BRING CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE

We collaborate with government investigative agencies to prosecute police abuses of power.

RESTORE SURVIVORS

We provide ongoing care to victims of police abuse of power and their families while in prison, and develop a re-integration plan for them.

STRENGTHEN JUSTICE SYSTEMS

We provide hands-on training and mentoring for police and other officials, and support the government in strengthening the legal safeguards that protect people from violence.