Maravi

Chongwe calls on government to build bigger, modern prisons

Chongwe calls on government to build bigger, modern prisons
By Bright Mukwasa, Masuzyo Chakwe and Henry Sinyangwe
Sat 07 Apr. 2012, 13:30 CAT

DR Rodger Chongwe says the government should build bigger and modern prison where inmates should be kept as human beings and not like "animals". And Non Governmental Organisa-tions Coordinating Committee (NGOCC)board chairperson Beatrice Grillo says prisons should be places where people go to reform and not die.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission has stated that the deprivation of liberty does not make prisoners less human than everyone else. Vice-President Guy Scott on Wednesday visited Mukobeko Maximum Prison in Kabwe where pathetic conditions of the facility were revealed.

Vice-President Scott, who described the state of Zambia's only maximum security prison as hell, said there was need for a total rehabilitation of the system.

During the visit, it was discovered that the condemned section of Mukobeka Maximum Prison had 281 prisoners against a holding capacity of 48.

Vice-President Scott's visit to the facility was the first of a high-ranking official since independence.

"Accommodation in these prisons has never been expanded considering the rise in our population. Chimbokaila in Lusaka, that prison was built for a population of Lusaka which had half a million and the same with Maximum Prison in Kabwe…," said Dr Chongwe, a prominent Lusaka lawyer.

"And we are 13 million people in Zambia today and we cannot, with that population, expect to use those prisons which were built at a time when numbers were less than what we have. The solution is to build bigger and modern prison infrastructure so that the inmates are kept there as human beings not as animals as described by the Vice-President that Mukobeko Prison is merely hell on earth."

He also said one of the things that should be done which had been hotly debated for sometime in the country was to perhaps consider abolishing capital punishment which was today on the statute books.

"The other thing is instead of imposing custodial sentences for minor offences like stealing a cob of maize, petty thieving…It's better to fine them and if they can't pay the fine, let them serve under some community service," advised Dr Chongwe.

And Grillo said there was need to decongest the Zambian prisons because the conditions were deplorable and inhumane.

"It is no wonder some prisoners do not reform and end up going back to the life of crime because of the conditions they were subjected to in prison," she said.

Grillo said people are supposed to come out of prison reformed and better. She said it was very unfair for a person to wait for 10 years for an appeal to be heard, describing it as inhumane as it took away all the human rights of a person.

"We need to decongest the prisons; and how can someone wait for 10 years for a case to be disposed of, how come? It's either they have a case or they don't. If the police are not able to bring a case to court within a certain period, then maybe there is no case and these people should be released," she said.

"Can you imagine if you spent 10 years and in the end you are later released because there is nothing, you have already gone through the trauma and everything."

Grillo urged the government to ensure that there was a fasttrack court to decongest the prisons so that less serious cases were dealt with as quickly as possible.

She said there should also be a law in place to ensure that cases that go beyond a certain period are disposed of because that would mean that the police had no case.

Grillo said there was need for more open prisons and urged the government to build more modern prisons as the country could not afford to be using prisons that were built 20 years ago.

And Human Rights Commission acting chairperson Palan Mulonda stated that prisoners were human beings deserving of decent existence and equal respect of human rights.

"The Commission is greatly concerned that today, Zambian prisons still echo the times when such facilities were viewed as places of punishment instead of being centres for rehabilitation of offenders who would later be integrated back into society after serving their respective sentences," he stated.

Mulonda stated that the commission was therefore delighted that the government had taken steps to address problems facing Zambia's prisons following Vice-President Scott's visit to Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison in Kabwe.

He stated that the gesture by Vice-President Scott was a sign that the government was concerned about the horrible conditions in prisons, hence their willingness to take corrective measures to finding a lasting solution to the problem.

"The Commission reiterates its call for improvement in the conditions of detention facilities countrywide and in the treatment of people detained in these facilities to ensure human dignity is preserved," Mulonda stated.

And Mulonda welcomed the government's pronouncement that it will address the issue of corporal punishment.

"The commission wishes to restate its position on capital punishment and urges government to consider acceding to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as the first step towards the abolition of capital punishment in Zambia," stated Mulonda.

Labels: GUY SCOTT, NGOCC, PRISONS, ROGER CHONGWE

posted by MrK @ 7:03 PM