The Malawi Prisons Service is set to pilot community corrections in selected districts as part of efforts to ease congestion in the country’s prisons, which currently hold between 17 000 and 18 000 inmates against a designed capacity of about 9 000.
The initiative follows the implementation of the Prisons Act 2025, which introduces new approaches to offender management, including non-custodial sentences that allow eligible offenders to serve their sentences within their communities rather than behind bars.
Commissioner responsible for Human Resource and Administration Clement Kainja said in an interview the service is training prison officers on the new law to ensure they understand its provisions and can translate them into practical action.
He said 100 community corrections officers are currently undergoing a two-month training programme at Mapanga in Blantyre, which began last month.
Upon completion, they will be deployed to districts where parole and community service programmes will be piloted.
Kainja said the service has embarked on a nationwide training programme to familiarise officers with the key provisions of the new Act, including changes to offender management and the introduction of community-based sentences.
He said the reforms would help ensure that imprisonment is reserved for offenders who need to remain in custody, rather than those who have committed minor offences and can be managed safely within their communities.
“The new Prisons Act is introducing community corrections, where the focus is to divert traffic from our prisons, which will eventually help to decongest our prison facilities. The Act will help ensure that those in custody are the people who need to remain there. They must be dangerous criminals and not those who have committed petty or minor offences,” said Kainja.
He said the pilot programme will initially target Mchinji, Phalombe, Machinga and Salima districts, where probation and community corrections officers will work with stakeholders, including the courts, to facilitate the implementation of non-custodial sentences.
Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) executive director Victor Mhango said implementation of the new Act would help reduce prison overcrowding and promote offender rehabilitation. His organisation has partnered with the Malawi Prisons Service to train officers on the new law.
Mhango welcomed the introduction of parole, saying it reflects a shift from punishment towards rehabilitation and gives offenders an opportunity to demonstrate that they have reformed.
He said effective implementation would depend on the capacity of officers responsible for enforcing the law.
“Most of the time in Malawi, we have beautiful laws, but what is lacking is implementation. There is often a capacity gap among the people who are supposed to implement those laws,” said Mhango.
The new law also provides for prisoners’ access to healthcare at either the State’s expense or their own expense, and prohibits involuntary medical examinations or treatment unless there is a significant risk to the prisoner or others.
It further recognises prisoners’ right to seek legal advice from a lawyer of their choice and, where necessary in the interests of justice, at the State’s expense.
Although the Act retains provisions for solitary confinement, it also takes into account the needs of prisoners with special requirements, placing greater emphasis on humane and dignified treatment.
