Kitwe high court judge, Isaac Kamwendo has appealed to government to consider building new reformatories and approved schools for juvenile offenders.
Justice Kamwendo said the present scenario where juveniles are kept together with adult offenders is not healthy adding that there is need to come up with separate facilities that fit the needs of the juvenile offenders.
He said the correctional facilities where the juvenile offenders are remanded are overcrowded and this has a negative effect on their health.
Justice Kamwendo was speaking in Solwezi today, during the ceremonial opening of the 2019 high court criminal sessions for the Northwestern province.
He said considering the budget constraints that the country may be facing, there is need to rehabilitate the existing facilities by addressing the dilapidated infrastructure, collapsed sewer system and water reticulation systems.
Speaking at the same event, Northwestern province Permanent Secretary Willies Mangimela, said government intends to construct two modern facilities in Mufumbwe and Chavuma districts with the capacity of 250 inmates.
Mr Mangimela noted that the new two correctional facilities will help decongest the existing ones in the province.
He also appealed for the construction of a fast track court to help with the quick disposal of cases which have risen owing to the growth in population.
And speaking during goal delivery, Zambia Correctional Service Northwestern regional commander Joseph Kondoloni said the service has enough maize stock to feed the inmates till the next harvest.
Mr Kondoloni said as of today morning, the six correctional facilities namely Solwezi, Kasempa, Kabompo, Zambezi, Mwinilunga and Mufumbwe had a combined total of 808 inmates in custody.
This is mind disturbing. Village concept in Heritage Party had great ideas. I would advise HH to:
– close all orphanages. Put kinds in villages with their families. Give social cash to those families.
– any NGO interested in Orphanages should then operate a juvenile deliquesce center.
Orphanages are not good. Ask most of those imprisoned kids, they passed through orphanages.
Very disturbing to put juveniles in cells with adults, what is wrong with our leaders kanshi? There on top of all this we have a completely hopeless minister of Justice that has failed lamentably in making justice accessible to even the poor what we are having instead is increased repression at the hands of the cruel sadistic judiciary and then the penal system is terribly backward with the worst conditions imaginable. Mr Kandoloni of the Correctional Service is misleading people by saying they have only 808 convicts in all the remand prisons in that province, what about other inmates who have not yet been convicted? There are those who have been remanded pending final judgment if we include these we might have a much larger number!