Not to worry today
Today I am in prison in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso. I walked into the Maco prison, the oldest and biggest prison in the city, with an MCC partner who works with juvenile offenders, but now they won’t let us out. We can hear the disturbances in the street, just outside the prison walls, but we really don’t know what is happening. Parliament was to vote on changing the constitution to allow the president to serve an additional term after 27 years in office, but the people seem to think 27 years is long enough. Adam Sensamaust (MCC country representative) and I are in prison with Pegue Savadogo, the director of Lieux de Vie (Places of Life), an MCC partner organization working with juvenile justice and employment training opportunities that allow some young offenders to serve alternative sentences. A soldier leads us into a room where 85 young offenders are waiting for us. We are told the youngest is age 13. About half of these young me...