Thursday, March 28, 2024

Prisoners eating one meal day due to the broken down kitchen equipment

Share

Milima Prisons Officer-In Charge in Kasama, in Northern Province, David Phiri, has revealed that 485 prisoners at the prison take one meal per day due to the broken down kitchen equipment.

Mr Phiri said since the kitchen equipment broke down last year, preparation of meals for inmates has been difficult, forcing authorities to provide them with one meal in a day.

He has appealed to Government to urgently look into the plight of the prisoners who are supposed to have at least two meals per day.

Mr Phiri has also revealed that the water pumps, which supply water to the prison and the camp, are old and constantly break down and require replacement.

He lamented that with the erratic water supply the sewer system has also collapsed and requires repair.

Mr Phiri, however, said the morale of officers at the prison is high as almost all officers have been promoted to the next rank by the Prisons and Police Service Commission which visited the province in February, this year.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Alfridah Kansembe, assured inmates at Milima Prison that Government is committed to protect their lives by providing them with food while serving their sentences.

Mrs Kansembe said the PF Government wishes all inmates to reform and become responsible citizens when they leave Prisons.

And in responding to in mates’ questions, Deputy Commissioner for Prisons, Lloyd Chilundika, said all inmates who have trades should continue with their trades in order to participate in national development.

Mr Chilundika said Government, with help of Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC), will provide loans to inmates who team up to form companies.

He said the loans will be paid back by individuals who commit themselves to the conditions once they left prisons.

Mr Chilundika urged the prison officers to change their attitude to work and promote food production for prisons to be self-sustaining.

He said prison officers should offer options of improving prisoners and steer them into producing their food and help even to feed the nation with surplus production.

ZANIS

16 COMMENTS

    • How do meals for pipo who have offended society by committing all manner of heinious crimes become a priority when we have innocent citizens like street kids some of them orphans as a result of the AIDS scourge starving and dying of preveentable diseases on the street.

    • No government has the power to sentence its citizens to ill health. Prisoners have the same human rights as anyone else, save the right to move about freely. Malnourishment is not an effective deterrent, and will not reduce the crime rate. It will, however, lead to poorer health in inmates, including higher rates of TB (active disease is more likely when a person is malnourished) and HIV (food traded for sex inside prisons), and poor adherence to medicines, leading to resistant strains. And who is at risk for those higher rates of disease and drug-resistant strains? Everyone! Prison health is public health; whether it’s former inmates, guards, or families, infectious diseases are transmitted between communities and prisons.

  1. @1, I agree that this is a human rights violation, but remember, the situation was the same when MMD were in power (if not in this particular prison, then in many prisons). PRISCCA, ARASA and Human Rights Watch did a study in 2009 of several prisons and found similar conditions (and much worse). Nevertheless, the Government needs to set aside more funding for the Prisons Service, and hold accountable any mismanagement of funds. They also need to lobby donors and international NGOs to include prisons in their health and development programs, and to raise taxes to fund Prisons Service. The Government can’t sentence people to ill health, but they are effectively doing that by not improving such conditions.

  2. At least they are eating!

    LT – Dont ever change your format again! I was traumatized by it and couldn’t blog.

    • Nice way of minimizing human suffering. I doubt you’d feel the same if you were in there. And before you say something about them deserving it for their crimes, here are two thoughts. One, not all inmates are guilty. Two, up to a third of those in Zambia’s prisons have never been convicted of a crime.

  3. Please don’t make fixing kictchen equipment a priority These guys must know they wronged society and are not sent there on holiday
    What about our innocent masses on the street who cant even afford half a meal a day and they respect the law of the land.
    Ayikona leave them!

  4. What happened to firewood, mbabula and other forms of cooking utensils? Prisoners can be mobilised to be doing these tasks of collecting firewood and even cooking. Fire the prison officer for not being proactive and starving the prisoners unnecessary.

  5. Total breach of Human Rights. Have they not heard of repairs?? These prisoners are being killed slowly. Komboni Radio Bwaima Bwakosa Ubulendo try and do a stretch in prison for a month and you will come out crying and ready to eat anything in sight.They have been locked up and should be taken care of. If you are a boss wherever you work you must be a slave driver. A friend of mine was due to have an endoscopy at UTH and was told they were unable to do it because the machine had no BULB. Therefore everything was at a stand still just because of a simple BULB. Who is in charge of stock taking? Or does it even exist? This machine at the prison should have been serviced due to the volume of output, but oh no, as long as its working its fine and then when it breaks down its, ‘too bad.

  6. Total breach of Human Rights. Have they not heard of repairs?? These prisoners are being killed slowly. Komboni Radio Bwaima Bwakosa Ubulendo try and do a stretch in prison for a month and you will come out crying and ready to eat anything in sight.They have been locked up and should be taken care of. If you are a boss wherever you work you must be a slave driver. A friend of mine was due to have an endoscopy at UTH and was told they were unable to do it because the machine had no BULB. Therefore everything was at a stand still just because of a simple BULB. Who is in charge of stock taking? Or does it even exist? This machine at the prison should have been serviced due to the volume of output, but oh no, as long as its working its fine and then when it breaks down its, ‘too bad..

  7. For those saying they deserve such puishment, you must think rationally. Not all of them are serving life sentences. At some point, these prisoners will have to be released back into society.If you mistreat them and subject them to inhumane conditions, they will come out of prison bitter towards authority and towards society. Which makes them commit even more heinous crimes. Whats to say you, a family member, or a friend wont be a victim?The western world focuses on rehabilitation rather than punishment in their prison systems.Theres a reason for this…

  8. One meal a day? They should be grateful for that. I know of people outside prison who are having one meal in two days.

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading