Editing Kinshasa (section)

===Crime and punishment===
Since the [[Second Congo War]], the city has been striving to recover from disorder, with many youth gangs living and operating from Kinshasa's poorer areas.<ref>Jonny Hong, "Gang crime threatens the future of Congo's capital", ''Reuters'', 19 June 2013.</ref> The U.S. State Department in 2010 informed travelers that Kinshasa and other major Congolese cities are generally safe for daytime travel, but to beware of robbers, especially in traffic jams and in areas near hotels and stores.<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Dept. of State – Congo, Democratic Republic of the Country Specific Information |url=https://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1104.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219124428/http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1104.html |archive-date=19 December 2010 |access-date=15 December 2010 |publisher=United States Department of State}}</ref>

Some sources say that Kinshasa is extremely dangerous, with one source giving a homicide rate of 112 per 100,000 people per year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bruce Baker |title=Nonstate Policing: Expanding the Scope for Tackling Africa's Urban Violence |url=http://africacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/AfricaBrief-7.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005100432/http://africacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/AfricaBrief-7.pdf |archive-date=5 October 2011 |access-date=17 August 2018 |website=Africacenter.org}}</ref> Another source cites a homicide rate of 12.3 per 100,000.<ref name="ElechiMorris2010">O. Oko Elechi and Angela R. Morris, “Congo, Democratic Republic of the (Congo-Kinshasa)”; in Mahesh K. Nalla & Graeme R. Newman (eds.), ''Crime and Punishment around the World'', Volume 1: Africa and the Middle East; Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2010; pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2uK6bR9byVIC&pg=PA53 53]–56.</ref> By some accounts, crime in Kinshasa is not so rampant, due to relatively good relations among residents and perhaps to the severity with which even petty crime is punished.<ref name=Trapido2016 />

While the military and National Police operate their own jails in Kinshasa, the main detention facility under the jurisdiction of the local courts is the Kinshasa Penitentiary and Re-education center in Makala. This prison houses much more than its nominal capacity of 1,000 inmates. In 2024, the population of Makala Prison was reported at 15,000.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjwknzy20xo] BBC News - 'Hell behind bars' - life in DR Congo's most notorious jail</ref>
The Congolese military intelligence organization, Détection Militaire des Activités Anti-Patrie ([[DEMIAP]]) operates the Ouagadougou prison in [[Kintambo]] commune with notorious cruelty.<ref name=ElechiMorris2010 /><ref>''[http://acjr.org.za/resource-centre/Prisons%20in%20the%20DRC.pdf Prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918175258/http://acjr.org.za/resource-centre/Prisons%20in%20the%20DRC.pdf |date=18 September 2017 }}'', ed. Ryan Nelson, Refugee Documentation Center, Ireland; May 2002.</ref>