Prisons complete female inmates relocation

In a bid to introduce tailor-made education programmes for female inmates, the Malawi Prison Services says it has now fully relocated all female prisoners to designated correctional facilities in the country.

Prisons national spokesperson Chimwemwe Shaba said in an interview yesterday they have already rolled out the new arrangement across the country.

He said those in the Southern Region have been moved to Thyolo Prison while those in the Central Region have been transferred to Kachere Rehabilitation Centre. In the North, they have been sent to Mzuzu Female Prison.

“We want to design and implement correctional programmes that respond to the needs of female inmates,” said Shaba.

He further highlighted that the country’s prisons were built with designs that biased towards men, saying it has been difficult to mix men and women.

“Men have had better access to a lot of things. But it has been hard to design and introduce education programmes for females since they are mostly in the various prison facilities,” said Shaba.

Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance executive director Victor Chagunyuka Mhango hailed the development, saying the prison facilities were not built with women in mind.

“We believe that putting them together will also improve their well being, privacy and security,” he said.

However, Mhango feared that the system will limit the inmates’ interactions with their families and communities due to long distances that visitors now have to endure.

“The Constitution provides for prisoners to interact with their relatives and friends. For example, it will now be expensive for one to travel from Nsanje District to see a relative at Thyolo Prison. Prisons should now have phones so inmates can be able to speak with relatives,” he said.

Prisons data shows that the country’s prisons, have a capacity of 5 000 prisoners, but hold between 15 000 and 16 000 inmates, with female inmates constituting 1.1 percent of the population.

In 2020, a study titled ‘Prison Facilities Were Not Built with a Woman in Mind: An Exploratory Multi-Stakeholder Study on Women’s Situation in Malawi Prisons’ highlighted various challenges affecting female convicts.

The study revealed issues related to sanitation and hygiene, nutritional provision, access to healthcare services, and the needs of women and children in prisons.