Thursday, March 28, 2024

Introduce Fee paying Police cells

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Prisoners sleeping.Picture from foreignprisoners.com
Prisoners sleeping.Picture from foreignprisoners.com

By J.Musonda
It may sound like a crazy idea to some readers but I am convinced it will be original and helpful to Zambians. After reflection on hospital services and the arrest of some politicians who have asked for special treatment when are locked up, I thought it will be helpful, to build Fee Paying Police cells.

These cells will be kept clean and will be self contained rooms. I am fully aware some will find it weird because it is very new and they have never heard about it. My argument is,if hospitals have special Fee Paying wards why not police cells?

In fact if we have different treatment for patients depending on wealth why can we not do it to Police cells also.
The money raised from these Fee Paying Police cells will:

  1.  Help improve other ordinary cells
  2.  Decongest the ordinary cells
  3. Will be a way to take money from the rich and use to the benefit of society
  4. And is good income for the police service.

This is not a new concept even police bond “bail” is determined by the wealth and influence of the person. The truth is no-matter what we will decide even in crime,people are treated according to their status – wealthy, authority and power they have in society. I appeal to people responsible for making decisions to think on this idea.

83 COMMENTS

    • I do no see anything ‘weird’ about this ideal. I think it is worth considering and fine-tuning. Zambian Jails have become a breeding ground for T.B , HIV and sodomy. It is important that we start thinking seriously about our broken prison system and come out with solutions instead of just trashing people that come out with ideals that may seem weird to our unsophisticated minds.
      I would like to see private jails run by private companies competing for contracts from central government, the state can introduce open prison farms for non- dangerous criminals and minors, an overhaul of our justice system that sends people to 15 years hard labour for stealing a bicycle! the tagging system , we can even borrow the flogging system used in the middle east. etc

    • At first glance I thought its a weird idea but I thinks its an original concept from one of few human beings who are not afraid of using their heads. It sounds funny but all original ideas to ordinary minds like mine, are mind boggling at first glance….follow it up when we get used to it we will like it and appreciate your genius…thanks bro.

  1. Ba Musonda weid indeed

    Bekani bola panshi….

    You country can not even afford an oxygen machine at UTH and you want to send a rocket to the moon.

    To eat an elephant you must eat in small bites

    • You are sick in the head, those are correction facilities not punishment. Still having a colonial mentality. Musondas idea is brilliant

    • Meek Mills, I personally like Musonda’s idea but i wonder if this government understands what correctional facilities are….. If they can convict a shop lifter and give sentence of 3 yrs with hard labour, there’s no remorse shown here…. Try and correct these convicts and provide them with educational tools to help them survive after doing time. But if treated like animals, well you are creating monsters….

  2. Iwe J.Musonda are you ok in the head?You sound like someone who has had too much marijuana!!Creating fee paying police cells is not only crazy but absurd!!The law does not discriminate and must not discrminate between the rich and the poor!We are equal before the law,period!!You cannot compare a police cell and a hospital ward!In hospital people go there for treatment while in police cells people are taken there for punishment!!Be real man and stop hallucinating!!

    • You really don’t know what you are talking about…..the law does discriminate…how long does it take a poor Zedian to go to court or a case to be heard,think b4 you write,have facts in your head than having them on your balls….

    • What kind of punishment are prisoners given? does the law say they should be denied access to clean environment? good food? clean water? clean beddings? a BIG NO!!!!! and who says all humans are equal? We are just equal on that white paper, ok let us say we are equal, how will this idea affect this equality law? even in compounds we have rich and poor people but we are equal.This idea is excellent, period!!

    • If you can discriminate in Hospitals where life matters by having Fee paying wards why should the suggestion of Fee paying cells be a weird suggestion? You also have Fee paying toilets.Let us debate this noble suggestion.

  3. This is silly idea you must first understand why people are locked up you do not go into police cells for fun but to teach you a lesson!

    • 100 prisoners sleeping in a small room with little or no food isn’t teaching them a lesson, it’s outright inhuman and murder. Most of them are awaiting trial prisoners and therefore do not deserve to live in those horrid conditions before their cases are heard. Musonda’s idea is great, at least it would allow rich criminals to spend their prison time in luxury but behind locked cells.

    • London, not they’re different type of crimes, not everyone is a murderer, rapist, Armed robber E.t.c, These convicts are human beings that need care and need to be corrected. Yes some crimes are extreme, but its wrong to punish all with the same treatment.

    • People this grammatical error is deliberate. In the ’80s somebody important messed up in their grammar and it became a popular saying. You could say something like this, “Angola did it, Malawi did it, why can’t we did it?” I just don’t remember who messed up as I was quite young but speaking like this became really popular.

  4. Those in cells always pay when getting out, what are you saying? Only that there never used to be receipts, but three weeks ago I was suprised for the first time I was told to go back to the police only to be issued with the KR20 receipt. Way to go. I remember one time I went to to sign a bond for somebody and i paid KR40 for two people then I asked for a receipt. The police officer gave me the money back and locked them up again. Terrible.

  5. SUCH PRISONS ARE ALREADY IN EXISTENCE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD, INCLUDING SOUTH AFRICA.
    SELF CONTAINED, LIVING ROOM, DISH TV, NEWS PAPERS, MEALS OF CHOICE, ETC
    THERE IS NOTHING WRONG AND NOTHING WEIRD ABOUT IT.

  6. Musonda, i respect your notion. But can you research more and give the public more light. Remember if others say NO to your idea it does not mean you stop your dream. Pls continue your dream. In life opportunities comes from the BACK DOORS and not the front door.

  7. Good Idea. The datainees still need to be treated with honour and dignity. The only punisment should be confinement.

  8. You have petty criminals, dangerous criminals, public office abusers, political prisoners, wife/husband battery prisoners, murderers, manslaughers. etc.
    its an investment on its own for those who can make it. prisoners shall always be there but the challenge in Zambia would be how to sustain them with politics of poverty at hand.

  9. This guy is thinking outside the box and I think its a good idea especially when you have a government like PF in power that throws anyone in jail for flimsy reasons.

    • It’s foolish to politicize every good idea someone brings about,some of us are tired of politics,it’s a good idea for police business,remember,not fee paying prison,i support fee paying police cells.

  10. Fee paying cells for what?? a criminal must suffer and eat his/her own feases for doing wrong things no criminal should be VIP fyoooooo!!

  11. Ok Here is a scenario, My fiancé picks up a gun and kills your Mother when convicted requests to pay and live in a luxury prison
    Someone assaults a friend and then ends up being let in as a bad prison cell as seen on the picture above.
    There are things money should not buy, it is an abysmal thought, and I doubt the author is even Bemba because Bembas can’t sink so low mentally

    I know nowhere in the world where you pay to be in a better cell. You may just be fortunate to be imprisoned in a country where Jails are better than others
    It wouldn’t surprise me if the author has spend a few years in those prisons and has now a decent paying job wanting to not find himself in that environment again
    Pathetic

    Thanks

    • Mushota, mulikubasungu,understand the difference between police cell and prison please.The guy said police cells not prison.

    • why do you have to always mention your fiance ,we know his your life server but the man is actually right we need decent Police Cells because not all people there are bad to the bone some its just out of unfairness.

  12. Stupid idea ba Musonda.Such facilities are meant for reprimand and not relaxation.One should not feel comfortable in a police cell like home.The idea of a cell is to make you uncomfortable and ponder on why you are there and later refrain from the root cause.Hard try,but please try your insanity elsewhere.thank you

    • I hate agreeing with people
      I agree with you 100, you took a lot of what I was thinking with your analysis,
      well done although I do not like you.

      Your comment +50

      Thanks

  13. You guys against musondas idea have you ever heard of house arrest ?? Restricting someones movement even if its within their home premisses is punishment enough in most cases. Not all wrongs deserve harsh punishment as in the pic

    • Yes we have I wonder whether President Sata has, he could use that for his enemies rather than humiliate them in the way he seems to be bent on doing.

  14. Good idea,besides that ,community service should be encouraged,we need people to clean hospitals,schools and other public places.

  15. ‘These cells will be kept clean’, does it mean that the other cells are deliberately left uncleaned? Only Zambia can come up with such a ridiculous thought. Its just another stupid money making scheme to line the pockets of the police. Your prisons are well overcrowded and suppose 75% of them want a so called private cell, how will you handle that? Zambia has got so much land, why cant someone with a brain get the government to build a bigger prison? By now they have finished building Satas retirement home. If they had thought about the nation instead of a greedy leader , by now there would be a new bigger and cleaner prison. Keeping the prisoners overcrowded in small cells in inhuman, and a total breach oh human rights!!!

  16. Building a bigger prison would create so many jobs for builders guards, cooks and hopefully cleaners. Its not rocket science, just plain logic. Pathetic colonial hungover country!

  17. This is the best idea since LT came into existence. If we discriminate the right to life( hospitals) cells are way below that.

  18. The logical extension of Musonda’s idea is to have fee-paying prisons too! But what kind of society would we then be creating?
    The noble, ethical and correct thing to do (and which Musonda should be advocating for) is for the State to improve for everyone not only the conditions in police holding cells but also in our prisons.
    I’m appalled at the kind of mind that would even suggest Musonda’s remedy to congestion and poor conditions in our police cells. Is there no limit to human corruption?

  19. Brilliant Idea from yet again a bemba man, please this man should be promoted as IG as soon as possible. The ideas are very good and when he is IG he can really put the same into practice. Its not always an issue that i have never heard this in the world it can be a first idea why NOT???

    • I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!!! WE ALL KNOW THAT BEMBAS ARE JAIL BIRDS AND THIS MUSONDA WHO IS A THIEF BY TRIBE (KOLWESTAN) WANTS TO ENJOY ROOM SERVICE WHILE IN A HOLDING CELL.
      IMAGINE THE LIKES OF THE MAILONI BROTHERS ENJOYING A COLD BEER,SEX,CIGARS AND GOOD NUTRITIOUS FOOD IN A CELL.NO!! NO!! NO!!

      CRIMINALS DESERVE HELL ON EARTH PERIOD.

  20. First the picture displayed is a prison cell in malawi, zomba maula prison. During the early days of science those practising it were considered evil, today what ever we do has a science element. The idea about paying for cell rooms should be welcomed but all considerations taken. For example a person is in prison as a punishment to be away from people because certain persons are a menace to the society, if they can have it when in prison let them have it but without posing a threat to the masses.
    Its a cutting age idea not to be forsaken but considered carefully. hope such cells will be very very expensive as an additional punishement.
    Just my thot

  21. I WAS TOLD 50% OF HARDCORE CRIMINALS IN JAIL ARE MY BEMBA COUSINS FOLLOWED BY US THE NGONIS, THEN TONGAS. HOW TRUE IS, PLEASE CHATO GIVE US THE STATISTICS

  22. THEY SHOULD INCLUDE BROTHELS TOO AND STRIPER SELF CONTAINED WERE STRPERS CAN COME. UUM BAMUSONDA BUT ZO-O-ONA GOOD THOUGHT BEFORE ZAMBIA IS BEATERN

  23. Zambians books and articles are meant for reading. Im sure Ba J. Musonda stumbled upon this idea when I refered to UK and Canadian Community Policing on other thread. This is the reality not the first in the world. Remandees/suspects are only subject to confinement pending court proceedings. Until proven guilty one is considered innocent and they should have all other prevellages unless they are mental and there is fear of harm of self or others. In the case of capital offences such as murder (@mushota for your info), the suspect even before conviction should be confined in a maximum security prison.
    Botttom line, pvt security prisons are not a new norm and are used for remanding suspected not for serving sentences. Police cells must only used only for misdeminours and arraying to…

  24. Go back to the drawing board and think of some other money making idea/scam. It is the responsibility of Government to provide decent humane incaceration facilities. It is a shame that close to 50 years after independence we still largely depend on the infrastructure left behing by the colonial governments meant for a population that was a fraction of our current one. We could do away with unecessary expenditure on by elections and use the savings to improve prison facilities. I am wholly against privatisation of prison and detention facilities. I think that even in the best developed democracies, these are taken over by criminal cartels with the money which makes things worse for the ordinary nameless faceless prisoner or suspect

  25. The prison system is overcrowded largely because the legal/judicial system is over burdened. The police force is under trained to address myriad problems in a professional manner; standards of of education and training ought to be improved. What ought to be done is expand by building more prisons, expedite adjudication by case type. Electronic monitoring tags could work but our police force would require training in use, it initially be used on high profile individuals placed on police monitored custody (house arrest). Petty crimes shouldn’t require prison /jail time;a special judge should be quickly adjudicate cases at the police station to reduce legal processing time for some cases were possible. Fee paying jails, I am kinda ‘iffy’ about; privately run jails are more sustainable.

  26. i pity for giving negative sentiments that prisons are for punishment. Do you know that sometimes you may end up in court due to injustice and even money may not get you on bond? Imagine causing death by dangerous driving when infact its a drank or trump who just jumps on the road and you are in for it? Imagine you assault someone when you have been provocked beyond measure? imagine you take the law in your hands because the police are not on your side. Not all who end in prisons are offenders. Otherwise, evidence betrayed them and even white collar jobs, its the smart quakes who get away with it while the crooks like RB get away with it. So the onus is to make it workable. You will remember the bad state of police cells if your time comes!!!

  27. You, how do you compare hospitals/patients and cells/detainees?

    In the majority of times people do not get themselves sick, while people stupidly commit offences that land them in police detentions.

    How many wealthy people do you want the police to falsely detain so that they can generate revenue? There is already an option for wealthy detainees called bail. This enables them to return to their own beds st home or a hotel room instead of boarding at police detainees’ motel.

  28. Typical average Zambian mentality.Somebody (just because is a fellow Zambian) comes with an idea, you start unleashing insults on him. The revenue from the fee paying cells and (if you could add remand prisons) can be used to better the ordinary cells or even build new ones to decongest the existing ones. That’s why I still have respect for America coz they do things that have never been done before unlike other countries who are just good at coping. Come on guys we are better than that

  29. WHAT IS WEIRD ABOUT BA MUSONDA’S SUGGESTION?

    THE SUGGESTION IS BRILLIANT..

    BUT LET A JUDGE DETERMINE WHO SHOULD BE LOCKED UP IN A CELL…CURRENTLY CRIMINALS RUSH FOR BAIL OR POLICE BOND.

    WHETHER YOU ARE IN A FEE PAYING CELL/PRISON OR NOT, YOU ARE STILL DEPRIVED OF 95% OF YOUR HUMAN DIGNITY.
    SO WHY CANT THEY START A PAY BACK TO SOCIETY RIGHT AWAY INSTEAD OF EMPOWERING THEM WITH SKILLS AT THE EXPENSE OF TAX PAYER’S MONEY, FREE OF CHARGE!
    THE SUGGESTION IS SUPER BRILLIANT..

  30. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG AND NOTHING WEIRD ABOUT IT.

    SUCH PRISONS ARE ALREADY IN EXISTENCE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD, INCLUDING SOUTH AFRICA, SELF CONTAINED, LIVING ROOM, DISH TV, NEWS PAPERS, MEALS OF CHOICE, ETC EXCEPT ITS ALL PAID FOR BY GOVERNMENT.

    LET INMATES PAY FOR THEIR UPKEEP.

    BRILLIANT SUGGESTION.

  31. Wen u are arrested then it means u loose most rights. If u still enjoy the confort for home and in jail then the rich will not stop commiting crimes because they can still get away with it

  32. It’s an idea; but as long as we have mediocre leaders who know nothing of leadership, it will just be another thing they will exploit and line their pockets. The suggestion of having privately run prisons ( with lots of oversight to ensure humane treatment
    ne fya shala) sounds sustainable. Maybe I should look into the ‘Voodoo prison system’…

  33. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!!! WE ALL KNOW THAT BEMBAS ARE JAIL BIRDS AND THIS MUSONDA WHO IS A THIEF BY TRIBE (KOLWESTAN) WANTS TO ENJOY ROOM SERVICE WHILE IN A HOLDING CELL.
    IMAGINE THE LIKES OF THE MAILONI BROTHERS ENJOYING A COLD BEER,SEX,CIGARS AND GOOD NUTRITIOUS FOOD IN A CELL.NO!! NO!! NO!!

    CRIMINALS DESERVE HELL ON EARTH PERIOD.

  34. Conveyance vehicles to and from court for suspects need also a serious overhaul. Decent vans/buses must be used to court from police cells or remand prisons. It also gi

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