THE Auditor General called for a comprehensive national policy on internal security to address the rehabilitation and reintegration needs of prisoners.
In the latest audit report of July 2014, the office of the Auditor General also called for the prisons Act to be revised to conform to international standards.
The prisons Act should develop a strategic plan incorporating strategies on rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners. The office further called for increased efforts to facilitate the achievement of parole objectives under the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners in Zambia.
The report established that the parole objectives were not being followed. Some prisoners were not granted parole as they had not taken full advantage of the rehabilitation programmes while others had lost their eligibility due to expiry of their sentences.
Parole hearings were not being conducted on time by the national parole board due to apathy resulting from non-payment of allowances to the board members and lack of suitable transport to carry out parole hearings in prisons outside Lusaka as the NPB was based in Lusaka.
He said the failure to grant parole had resulted in the board not meeting its intrended objective of decongestinfg the prisons be releasing deserving prisoners before the expiry of their sentences and denying deserving priosoners the opportunity to take advantage of the benefits of early re-integration into society.
There was also need for qualified staff to generate data and perform social welfare assessments on each individual parolee because a parolee who was not adequately assessed for suitability was a risk to public safety.
The report further called for coordination between the Zambia prisons service and the community to avoid stigma on ex-convicts and promote positive impact on prisoner re-entry into society.
The Zambia prisons service should also provide re-integration programmes for the prisoners to avoid re-offending from the ex-convicts.
My brother had to escape prison even after his sentence had expired, they kept him in for an extra 5 months.
Thank you ba Lusaka Times for this article, it is said “a nation is judged by the way it treats its prisoners”..let us also improve the prison conditions, yes this government has indeed done more to improve life in prisons than anyother govt before it but there is more that needs to be done. A parole system will greatly decongest the cells, but we must have a well controlled system in place that will be monitored also our judiciary should refrain from passing stiff custodial sentences for minor crimes, the fear of the cells has led to rampant corruption. Maybe we should let the judges voluntarily spend some time in the cells so that they have a feel of it themselves. However, crimes like agrrav robbery and child defiling should continue to face the stiffest punishments.