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Prison congestion worsens

Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Ching’oma says the Prisons Bill, which is expected to be tabled in the forthcoming Parliament meeting scheduled to start on February 14 2025, is addressing various challenges facing the country’s prison facilities, including congestion.

He was reacting to revelations that the number of inmates in the country’s prisons has surpassed 17 000 against a holding capacity of 8 000.

Zomba Central Prison is one of the congested facilities. | Nation

In an interview at the Malawi Prison Headquarters in Lilongwe on Friday when he inspected the prison facilities to appreciate their status and challenges being faced, the minister said the Bill heralds bring a new chapter in the management of the country’s prisons.

Said Ching’oma: “The Bill is ready to go to Parliament for enactment. Once this Bill is enacted into law and assented to, we will be able to address such challenges and begin a new chapter in the management of our prisons.”

Malawi Prisons Service Commissioner General Masauko Wiscott said there are many challenges in the prison directorate, including lack of food for the inmates.

“We have many challenges to address. Apart from the congestion problem, we also have housing challenges such that we have less than 500 houses against over 3 000 officers. In addition, we also have food challenges,” he said.

Various stakeholders have blamed the prison congestion on an archaic Prisons Act that does not provide room for decongestion.

The Prisons Act was enacted on April 23 1956 to provide for the establishment of prisons within Malawi and a Prison Service, among others.

According to Wiscott, the law is under review because it overlooks some fundamental human rights of prisoners.

The Bill provides for the application of parole and community service, which the Malawi Prisons Service see as a way of reducing congestion, improving prisoners’ welfare and giving fair punishment for minor offences as opposed to custodial sentences.

On food challenges, Wiscott said through the ministry, there is an arrangement with the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation that prisons should be buying maize from the national grain trader.

Ching’oma is one of President Lazarus Chakwera’s new Cabinet appointees and he said he wants to document prison challenges to facilitate identification of solutions.

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