Maravi

Report reveals hellish conditions in prisons

Report reveals hellish conditions in prisons
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Wed 28 Apr. 2010, 03:10 CAT

A HUMAN rights report on Zambian prisons has revealed that prisoners suffer malnutrition, overcrowding, grossly inadequate medical care and the risk of rape and torture.

The 135-page report entitled Unjust and Unhealthy: HIV, TB, and Abuse in Zambian Prisons, was released yesterday by the Prisons Care and Counseling Association (PRISCCA), AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), and Human Rights Watch.

The researchers visited six prisons namely Lusaka Central, Mukobeko, Kamfinsa, Mumbwa, Mwembeshi and Choma.

The report stated that some prisoners were detained for years in such conditions even before they were brought to trial.

It also documents the failure of the Zambian prison authority to provide basic nutrition, sanitation, and housing for prisoners, and of the criminal justice system to ensure speedy trials and appeals, and to make the fullest use of non-custodial alternatives.

The report states that poor conditions and minimal medical care for prisoners lead to the transmission of HIV and tuberculosis - including difficult-to-treat and potentially deadly drug-resistant strains - that threaten the lives of both inmates and the general public.

“Zambian prisoners are starved, packed into cells unfit for human habitation, and face beatings at the hands of certain guards or fellow inmates,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

“Children, pregnant women, pre-trial detainees, and convicted criminals are condemned to brutal treatment and are at serious risk of drug-resistant TB and HIV infection.”

The groups called on the Zambian government and its partners to make immediate improvements in prison conditions and medical care, and the criminal justice system, both to respect the rights of prisoners and to protect public health.

The report stated that prisoners frequently spend years in prison awaiting resolution of their cases with over a third of inmates not serving time following a conviction but on remand, awaiting trial or other legal action.

“They frequently have no access to a lawyer or to bail and may wait months even for an initial appearance before a judge. Immigration detainees often linger in prison with no due process. Partly as a result of such justice failures, overcrowding is endemic in Zambian prisons,” stated the report “Children and adults, remand, immigration, and convicted detainees all are held together in spaces so tight that at some prisons, they are forced to sleep seated or in shifts.”

The three organisations observed that food provided by the government was so inadequate that it has become a commodity traded for sex.

The report stated that water was unclean, no soap was provided, and bathing facilities were squalid.
It stated that many prisoners were not provided with uniforms, wearing rags and blankets infested with lice.

The report observed that infectious disease - in particular TB and drug-resistant TB -was a serious prison health and public health danger as a result of these conditions.

“The conditions in TB isolation cells are life-threatening, yet inmates who have completed TB treatment choose to continue sleeping in the cells with prisoners with active TB because they are less crowded than general population cells. HIV prevalence rates are high, last measured at 27 per cent. While testing and treatment have improved at some prisons, serious gaps remain, particularly at smaller, rural prisons. A ban on condoms makes HIV prevention impossible,” the report stated.

“People are dying,” said Godfrey Malembeka, a former prisoner and prison rights activist who is executive director of PRISCCA. “Zambia has an obligation to ensure humane treatment for prisoners. Human beings cannot live the way the prisoners are living - it is intolerable.”

The report observed that physical abuse only compounds the ill health of inmates where some prison officers routinely beat prisoners, or force them naked into small, dark cells where they are given minimal food.

“Officers flood the cells with water to exacerbate the punishment. Prisoners are also frequently beaten by other inmates, especially at farm prisons. Sexual abuse is common, and children are particularly vulnerable to rape by adult inmates in their cells,” it stated.

The report observed that medical care was almost non-existent and the Zambia Prisons Service employs only 14 healthcare workers to serve 15,300 inmates, and only 15 of the country’s 86 prisons had clinics or sick bays.

It stated that inmates were frequently prevented from accessing health facilities outside the prison based on the sole judgment of non-medical officers and other inmates or because of a lack of transport or security fears on the part of prison officers.

The report’s authors called on the Zambian government to take prompt action to improve medical care by placing a clinical officer at each of the country’s 86 prisons, and to decrease overcrowding by scaling up the use of bail, parole, and non-custodial sentencing options.

The report also called on the Zambian government, in partnership with international agencies and donors, to increase medical services within prisons to include on-site HIV and TB testing and treatment, to improve access to external health facilities, and to improve general conditions, end physical abuse, and speed the progress of prisoners’ cases through the justice system.

ARASA director Michaela Clayton said Zambia needed to act now to improve conditions in prisons and address the health needs of prisoners.

“Addressing prisoner health is also critical for effectively addressing community health, since prisoners and staff return to towns and villages. Forsaking justice and health for prisoners jeopardises us all,” said Clayton.

Labels: PRISONS

posted by MrK @ 4:31 PM