by Barbara Lopi
As the rate of crime in southern Africa continues to increase due to social circumstances, the cost of maintaining prisons and prisoners is posing a big challenge to governments in the SADC region.
Prisons in most countries in the region are overcrowded, while the condition of inmates is appalling. Most governments are pre-occupied with other economic burdens, making it difficult to either build more prisons or reform conditions in the existing ones.
It is against this background that the validity of custodial sentences has become highly questionable, with SADC countries being advised by some human rights activists within and outside the region to consider other options of punishing law-breakers.
In Namibia, a major prison with a capacity to accommodate 3 196 inmates has an excess of 800 prisoners, while in Malawi, 17 prisoners died in a cell from suffocation on 5 March this year.
According to the weekly Malawi News, the tiny cell in which the prisoners died was designed for eight people, but on that night there were 73 people crammed into it. All of them stayed in the cell for three days without being checked on, according to the report. I The story of overcrowded prisons is the same in Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe where hundreds of prisoners are crammed in prisons sometimes designed for less than half the figure. In a bid to overcome the challenges posed by the increasing cost of maintaining prisons, Zimbabwe, which accommodates over 22 000 prisoners in the country’s 40 prisons built to house 16 000 inmates, has established a programme aimed at resolving the problem of over-population in prisons.
Under this programme, the courts replace custodial sentences with non-custodial sentences such as community service, where convicts are sentenced to do manual work without pay, at assigned public institutions like hospitals, bus terminals or markets in their communities, for specific hours depending on the seriousness of the case. I I Embarked upon two years ago on a pilot basis, community service only applies to convicts facing petty crimes. Those convicted of murder, armed robbery, car theft, rape, abortion, infanticide are not eligible.
The heads of institutions to which offenders are sent to work help supervise the performance of the prisoners at the institution in collaboration with the prison officials and the Prisons Fellowship of Zimbabwe, a non-governmental organisation supported by different civic groups.
Over 7 000 convicts have done community service since its inception, a situation Zimbabwe’s Attorney General Patrick Chinamasa describes as a, “remarkable achievement” in reducing prison populations.
Available statistics in Zimbabwe indicate that at least 75 percent of the people are serving sentences of less than six months in prison and are mostly eligible for community service.
Other sentences being explored in Zimbabwe include fines and where possible, compensation by offenders to the complainant. Currently, possibilities to introduce open prisons are being assessed, and 4 000 prisoners are expected to benefit from a Presidential amnesty.
In Malawi, President Bakili Muluzi recently pardoned 400 prisoners for minor offences in the country’s bid to reduce prison populations. Possibilities to introduce open prisons are also being explored in Zambia. .
A Tanzanian journalist who was last year detained at a remand prison in that country’s capital, Dar es Salaam, says prison conditions in the region are a legacy of colonial heritage — punish rather than rehabilitate into acceptable citizens.
International Press Service (IPS) reports in its Human Rights Bulletin that the journalist whose name and offence were not specified wrote in his testimony that” …prison conditions in Tanzania are so bad that inmates are speedily reduced to hopeless conditions of physical and mental wreckage.”
Locking up prisoners in j ails is a common practice in the region with the sole aim of removing offenders from society, and inflict extreme punishment on them. But research is proving that prisons have become “schools” where inmates are acquiring tricks on how to engage in serious crimes as petty offenders mix with hard-core criminals.
Other researches have shown that many ex-prisoners between 19 and 35 lapse into crime after release because while in prison, they discuss plans on how to become “better” criminals.
Social analysts argue that imprisoning petty offenders who do not really pose danger to society deprives the convicts of rehabilitation. On the other hand, University of Zimbabwe’s law lecturer, Geoff Feltoe, believes that locking people away addresses only the symptoms and ignores the causes of crime.
A Human Right activist and Executive Director of Inter-Africa Network for Human Rights and Development in Zambia, Ngande Mwanajiti says if the United Nations had to carry out an evaluation on the state of prisons and condition of prisoners in Zambia and many other countries in southern African, most, if not all would be found guilty of failing to uphold the UN minimum standard rules on the treatment of prisoners. He was speaking after inspecting prisons in Zambia early this year to examine the extent of human rights abuse.
The UN requirement on the treatment of prisoners emphasises rehabilitation rather than incarceration of prisoners, a situation contrary with the reality in many countries in the region.
Other human rights activists argue that governments in the region should consider open prisons to petty crime offenders if they have to overcome the present challenges posed by increasing prison populations.
A Minister of Prisons and Correctional Services in Namibia, Marcho Hausiku, admits that his country can no longer afford to lock up prisoners and only provide food. Hausiku says with the help of the community, his ministry plans to re-orientate and train its personnel to focus increasingly on rehabilitation.
It is no doubt that the answers to the challenges paused by the increasing costs in maintaining prisons that continue to outstrip government’s budgets in the region, lies in depopulating prisons. Noncustodial sentences appear to be one of the solutions. (SARDC)
