MHRC pens prison chiefon malnutrition surge

Following The Nation revelations about malnutrition among inmates at Bvumbwe Prison in Thyolo, Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has written prison authorities to act and comply with international obligations guaranteeing prisoners’ rights to nutritious food.

The letter signed by MHRC executive secretary Habiba Osman follows The Nation investigative report published yesterday and whistle-blowers’ accounts.

The letter to Malawi Prisons Service chief Wandika Phiri reads in part: “The situation exposes a graver problem in the country’s overcrowded yet underfunded prisons where “the right to food remains problematic.”

MHRC has asked Phiri to urgently act on the reported human rights violations, starvation of prisoners at Bvumbwe and Zomba Central Prison.

Yesterday, The Nation learnt that prisons top command detected severe malnutrition that claimed a life at Bvumbwe Prison, but stopped short of disciplining an officer for neglecting the time bomb.

Further, it has transpired that just last month, prisons chief Wandika Phiri sent nutrition experts to probe widespread malnutrition at the prison reserved for young offenders.

The twist follows The Nation exclusive investigation published yesterday which uncovered an influx of wasted malnourished prisoners chained to sickbeds at Thyolo District Hospital.

The spate alarmed some health care workers who tipped prison authorities and questioned them why all malnourished patients hailed from Bvumbwe Prison, not two other prisons in the district.

Following the revelations, prisons national spokesperson Chimwemwe Shaba yesterday said the reports of malnutrition at Bvumbwe were true and authorities were aware of them.

“Last month, nutritional officers from MPS headquarters went on a monitoring and evaluation exercise where they discovered that 45 young offenders had severe malnutrition, 50 were moderately affected and 183 were normal. Those in the hospital had severe acute malnutrition,” he said.

Shaba said prisons principal nutrition officer Clara Mvula and National Aids Commission official Aswell Kachidowo shared the “shocking findings with the chief commissioner of prisons on March 6”.

He said: “The chief command immediately summoned the officer-in-charge for Bvumbwe and the regional head of prisons in the Southern Region.

“They were shocked that the officer in charge didn’t inform them for immediate intervention. As such, the leadership of Bvumbwe Prison is being scrutinised and action will be taken because this is negligence.”

Phiri was locked in a meeting last evening when we phoned for her response.

She is scheduled to visit Bvumbwe Prison today to assess the situation weeks after ordering food rations and nutritional supplements from Makande Prison Farm in Thyolo as well as  Blantyre Prison to keep the debilitating nutrition crisis in check.

The surge in malnutrition could be a new low in a food crisis in the country’s correctional facilities where inmates went days without food last October.

On Wednesday last week, the human rights protectors’ inquiry into March 13 reports that prisoners at Zomba Central Prison had gone four days without food confirmed “acute food shortages” that left some prisoners malnourished.

They reported: “On the day of the [fact-finding] mission, inmates were just fed with porridge instead of nsima and no relish was provided, despite prison officials claiming that relish was there. Inmates testified that the situation had been like that for days.”

The mission ranks inmates requiring supplementary diet, including those on HIV treatment, as the most affected as “they can’t take drugs on empty stomachs” and sometimes risked their lives by skipping medication.

The letter signed by Osman warns Phiri that these developments amount to violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights.

It reads:  “We, therefore, request your urgent action on the issues, most of which have been noted since last year when the food crisis was reported across the country in almost all the major prisons.

Among others, MHRC calls for an end to the ban on food from outside announced to protect inmates from the country’s deadliest cholera outbreak.

And Centre for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance executive director Victor Mhango said it is disappointing that some prison officers treat prisoners’ rights with  a laissez-faire attitude.

“Time has come to take prisoners as human beings like any other regardless of the crime they committed.

“Inmates are not lesser beings,” said the campaigner, who sits on the Prisons Inspectorate, constitutionally mandated to protect inmates’ rights.