Communities hail Nkhata Bay prison for rehabilitation

Local communities in Nkhata Bay have commended Nkhata Bay Prison for its rehabilitatition programmes that will enable inmates to be self-reliant after expiry of their jail term.

The prison focuses on rehabilitation and reintegration by equipping  inmates with various skills including farming, construction, painting, tailoring, hairdressing and mobile phone repairing.

One of the community members, Ana Lindizani, said rehabilitating prisoners prevents the possibility of committing more crimes.

“Some people committed offences due to economic problems. So, they need to be equipped with skills to lead a productive life; hence, preventing possibilities of committing crimes in future,” she said.

Nkhata Bay Prison spokesperson MacDonald Migolo said prisons exist to reform and transform law breakers into better citizens.

 “Our core function is to ensure that prisoners are kept in safe custody, reformed and transformed and while serving their sentences, they are taught various skills to become reliable citizens when released,” he said.

Migolo, however, said inadequate resources limit them from engaging every prisoner in skills acquisition as the funds are generated by the prison itself.

A certain percentage of the money obtained from the rehabilitation activities is put into the prisoner’s account, to be used as start-up capital after jail, and the other sum is put into the prison’s account according to Migolo. n