The report by three human rights groups including Human Rights Watch said the exposure of prisoners to deadly drug-resistant strains of HIV and TB in overcrowded cells threatened the lives of both inmates and the general public.
The report, “Unjust and Unhealthy: HIV, TB, and Abuse in Zambian Prisons”, said some prisoners were detained for years in such conditions even before being brought to trial.
“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,” it said.
Some 16 percent of Zambia’s total population is HIV positive and 1 million have full-blown AIDS. The rate of tuberculosis infection is also 16 percent, but HIV-related TB is even higher, according to health ministry data.
Zambia’s prisons service employs only 14 healthcare workers to serve 15,300 inmates, and only 15 of the country’s 86 prisons have clinics or sick bays, according to the study.
“People are dying,” said Godfrey Malembeka, a former prisoner and prison rights activist who heads a local human rights group that was part of the study.
Testing for HIV — last measured at 27 percent among inmates — and treatment for AIDS have improved at some prisons, but a ban on condoms in prisons, introduced to discourage intercourse and homosexuality, makes prevention impossible, the report said.
“Sexual abuse is common, and children are particularly vulnerable to rape by adult inmates in their cells,” it said.
The report said the food provided by the government was so inadequate that it had become a commodity traded for sex
[Reuters]
Politicians – please look into this because tomorrow yoy might jts be there ka!
HIV is not spread by overcrowding.
The big question is, WHY HAS MMD FAILED TO IMPLEMENT THE DECENTRALISATION POLICY?
Those in MMD know that their fear is that Councils will perform better, especially the City& Municipal Councils which are under the opposition, and that would be a threat to the survival of MMD. This is the perception of those in MMD, its sad to have such shallow minded leaders that can hold back the development of the nation for their own benefit at the expense of the masses.
Finally, are MMD controlled Councils doing better than those under opposition?
Can MMD tell us why Councils they control e.g. Kaoma in W. Province, Milenge in Luapula &Isoka have had misappropriation cases (not misapplication) What of AG reports on Central Govt?
Minister of MLGH, who’s MMD, approves all budgets for Councils.
I don’t get this. Are children locked up in the same facilities as adults? What happened to Katombora reform that used cater for the underage?
In third world countries prisons are essentially death camps.
This Govt has no agenda for such institutions. that’s why they made sure that chiluba escape the sentence coz he would have died just from the entrance. Ba Banda, remember those people are also human beings. remember you may go there too after 2011 general elections.
am really touched about of the way the inmates are being kept, the unhealth conditions they are subjected to, talk of HIV, TB, no good water and sanitation, yet we as a country we carry out many campaigns of different kinds, don’t we think that even these people they have the right to such services. being in prison should not be a death trap, but someone should be taken their for rehabilitation or to receive corrective services but it’s not the case in most of the prisons in Zambia. Please, people of high authority in charge of this department, please lobby for good services for these people