Cruel prison conditions damage Malawi human rights record

Malawi’s human rights is being dented with growing reports of poor prison conditions in the country, recent survey of the facilities by Africa Press Agency (APA) reveals that the situation is bad.

According to APA, congestion, inadequate diet, shortage of clothing and blankets, overstaying, substandard sanitation, lack of proper health care services and physical assault by their guards are some of the major problems that Malawi’s prisoners face in the country.

In its report, APA said the survey found that conditions in Malawi prisons are “pathetic” compared to other sub-Saharan African countries.

APA reported that a grouping of Malawi lawyers who offer free services to the vulnerable groups such prisoners, Centre for Legal Assistance (CELA)’s Executive Director Charles Kasambara agreed that the conditions in the Malawi Prisons are “extremely bad, needing government’s intervention.”

"We are urging government to immediately come up with remedial measures so that the country’s prisons become better places for reformatory," Kasambara told APA.

He said there was overpopulation in the jails, which were designed to take up to 700 inmates in one facility but accommodate over 2,000 prisoners in each of the 24 facilities.

Prisons are also said to have no toilets thereby spreading of airborne diseases. Kasambara said inmates found with infectious diseases, are not quarantined which makes the diseases to spread further.

The problem of inadequate nutrition, he said, has resulted in the inmates receiving only one meal a day, a meal that is not well balanced. This consists of only beans and a stiff porridge made from maize flour.

Most inmates were reported to have overstayed on remand, others up to more than five years without being committed to courts, mostly in homicide cases.

APA survey also revealed that there more deaths in Malawi prisons with HIV/aids patients being highly vulnerable due to lack of special diet for prisoners who are HIV-positive and on anti-retroviral therapy.

According to APA, CELA and the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) as friends of the court have challenged the government through the court to consider having a well balanced diet for the prisoners who are HIV positive.

The report also noted that prisoners are physically assaulted, intimidated and forced to make false confessions by the security personnel.

Assistant Commissioner for Prisons, Robert Sambakunsi said the overcrowding in jails would be abated by construction on new prisons citing the new “state-of-the art” Mzimba prison as an example.

The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) has written to the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights to request a visit to Malawi prisons by the Special Rapporteur for Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa following several reports on appalling prison conditions.

Nicole Fritz, SALC Executive Director also noted overcrowding as “most terrible” problem in Malawian prisons.