When starvation is part of prison punishment

In a civilized world prisons are not supposed to be prisoners’ killing fields through torture, congestion, denial of adequate nutritious foods, quality medical treatment.
Instead, are places for prisoners’ Retribution, Incapacitation, Deterrence, and Rehabilitation.
Retribution means punishment for crimes against society.
Depriving criminals of their freedom is a way of making them pay a debt to society for their crimes.
Incapacitation refers to the removal of criminals from society to prevent them from harming innocent people while Deterrence prevents future crime.
It is hoped that prisons provide warnings to people thinking about committing crimes, and that possibility of going to prison discourages them from breaking the law.
Rehabilitation refers to activities designed to change criminals into law abiding citizens, and may include providing educational courses in prison, teaching job skills and offering counseling with a psychologist or social worker.
One would think that Malawi ’s political change from one to multi-party system would mean prisoners’ rights improving in terms of food provision.
A senior officer at Maula Prison however, disclosed that prisoners eat too little or sleep on empty stomach as inmates now get far less meals today than even during late first president Hastings Kamuzu Banda during dictatorship.
He disclosed that earlier this year there was no maize for food for inmates and were surviving by chewing sugar cane, boiled maize cobs and beans.
“Dating from the one party era each prisoner is supposed to get not less than 686g of food per day but is getting less,” he said.
He disclosed that he has been with Malawi Prison Service (MPS) under late Banda, former president Bakili Muluzi and the current government of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
“During late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s time prison dust bins were filled with leftovers,” he said adding, “This is not longer the case today because the bins are empty. At present at Maula Prison with a population of 2,200 inmates we need not less than 29 bags of maize daily or K75,400 or a budget of K2,262,000 per month for processing flour,” he said.
The officer further said that if he was to disclose Maula Prison’s budget ceiling for all its operations including food for prisoners one would laugh his lungs out.
He also disclosed that to protect prisoners from starving to death during Banda’s time whenever prisons ran out of food authorities would simply call the Home Affairs Minister to authorize food deliveries and process payments to suppliers later.
"Today it’s very different. We are using cash budget system hence no money no food delivery,” he said.
He disclosed that in response to the recent maize shortage at Maula Prison government gave the prison a K 878,800 cheque to buy maize.
“The cheque was addressed to Admarc to urgently source 330 bags of maize (each weighing 50 Kg,)” he said.
If the state controlled agricultural produce marketer, Admarc bought the bags and be consumed at 29 bags per day or 686g per prisoner would last for 11 days.
The officer said the prison just kept the cheque because when Admarc was approached said there was no maize in its markets in Lilongwe and other districts in the central region.
“Our maize shortage is being compounded by the sharp increase in the price of food in the country from the time we had presented our budget,” he said.
The officer disclosed that the price of a 50 kg bag of maize was budgeted at K1,500 yet the price shot up to K2 ,600 each .
He also revealed that his office managed to get about 380 bags.
These bags would last for just 13 days if each prisoner was to get at least 686g of food.
The period Maula had no maize was supposed to mill six bags of maize or 300 Kg per day therefore, each inmate in the registered 2,200 population would get just 136g of nsima.
“Our requirement is 810 bags of maize per month,” the officer said and this would be a ration of 613g per prisoner per day.
The officer also disclosed that Maula, built in 1965 to accommodate 800 inmates had 41 women and four children included in the recent 2,200 population.
Lefina Black, 24, had to leave Chiponda Village,Traditional Authority Msakambewa, Dowa about 40 Km from Lilongwe City to boar a minibus weekly to Maula Prison to visit her husband, Kennedy Lazaro.
She said her husband was arrested on July 9, last year after his involvement in a fight.
“Ever since he came here [Maula] he has never been to the court to answer his charges,” Lefina said adding that she was struggling to raise money to buy food for him.
“Apart from sourcing food for him I have to feed our three children and it’s not easy to travel from my village to Maula for it requires money,” she said at Maula Prison an interview .
Lefina said she used to only go with already prepared meals for her husband at Maula however, apart from the meal she was asked by Kennedy also brought some maize flour for him.
“He told me that there was no nsima at Maula due to maize shortage and the situation was worsening,” she said.
Taking advantage of the fact that the sugar cane and boiled maize being given to the prisoners were not enough to sustain their lives, some people including prisoners and warders were selling food items to inmates hence it was a survival of the fittest.
The Chief Commissioner for Prisons Macdonald Chaona earlier this year admitted that his office was struggling to operate including feeding prisoners.
“We are operating on in adequate funds. Out of a K1.2 billion budget we had submitted to government last year we were just given a K600 million ceiling. The lump sum includes money for among other things, fuel, food, drugs not enough,” he said.
A Malawi Prison Service report reveals that government used to spend K32 per (or less than 25 US cents) per prisoner per year on food during the one-party regime while during democratic Malawi over $52(over K7,300 per prisoner per year(or about K20 or about 25 U cents) per day per prisoner.
“Inadequate financial resources have had a number of cases contributed to failure by management at the prisons to provide adequate and nutritious food to inmates,” says the report adding, “The monotony diet and food insufficiency for a long time had been a standing problem in Malawi prisons.”
The report further says there was also a problem on the supply of food to prisons due to transport shortage.
“The situation has been tense at times resulting in outcries by all those concerned. Prison authority has had no choice but accept whatever little was allocated to meet inmate food supply,” says the report.
Amnesty International (AI)’s 2008 report says prison congestion remains a problem in Malawi disclosing that last year some 11,000 inmates were held in prisons designed for 5,000.
The watchdog further says most Malawian prisoners die due to inadequate diet and medical treatment.
The organization however, says last year 110 Malawian prisoners died against 280 in 2007 representing a drop by 60 percent.
While Malawi government was struggling to cough K2,260,000 per month to adequately feed 2,200 prisoners at Maula, few months ago over K400 million tax payers money was allegedly misappropriated by 10 Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) members of staff. This money is enough to feed Maula prisoners for over 14 years!
Meanwhile, Mutharika admitted that prisons were facing a lot of challenges to sustain lives of inmates due to many problems including food shortages and congestion.
To promote food security in prisons his administration established two new prison farms at Mkhate in Chikwawa and Makande in Thyolo.
“To reduce congestion in our prisons we have built Mzimba prison now operational. It accommodates 600 inmates and more prisons will be built to deal with the congestion problem,” Mutharika said adding that his government is committed to improving prisoners’ welfare.
Muluzi also admitted that inmates were suffering during his reign due to some hiccups in the country’s justice system.
He however, said in present democratic Malawi unlike in the one-party regime prisoners’ rights had to be respected.
“A prisoner is a normal person, just like you and me it’s not right to mistreat them in any way,” Muluzi said whose government also struggled to feed prisoners and also experienced prison congestion after he had closed some prisons.
To sample Malawi's prison conditions The New York Times sent its crew to Maula few years ago.
Lackson Sikayenera told the newspaper that was on November 10, 1999 incarcerated at Maula and got used to one meal of porridge daily.
He also spent 14 hours daily in a cell designed for 50 to 60 people with 160 others, packed on the concrete floor, unable even to move.
At 4 p.m., Sikayenera and other inmates were herded into a dozen concrete cells before 14 hours later, at 6 a.m., let out again.
He was accused of killing his brother yet the charges against him were then not filed to a court because, after November 1999, justice officials lost his case file.
Therefore, while prison guards knew that he was in the cell at Maula in all the country’s courts Sikayenera never existed.
His father gave him a choice tobacco plot that his brother,Jonas claimed was rightfully his.
“ Jonas threatened to kill me if I did not surrender it. I refused, and Jonas attacked,” he said then adding, “To protect myself, I took a hoe handle and hit my brother on the forehead, and he fainted.”
Malawi's prison population has more than doubled since democratic transition in 1994 and justice delivery has been a challenge because of the few numbers of people in the legal profession.
In 2005 the country’s Justice Ministry said Malawi with 12 million plus people then had only 28 legal aid attorneys and eight prosecutors with law degrees.
There were also 32 vacancies for prosecutors then, but salaries were so low that the posts went unfilled.
So except in special cases like murder and manslaughter, almost all accused went for trial without lawyers.
The police prosecutors who tried the cases have only basic legal training.
The lay magistrates who sat in judgment also had never been to a law school.
High Court Judge Justice Andrew Nyirenda, Senior Counsel, told The New Yiork Times that Malawi ’s justice system had been swamped by the growth and rising complexity of crimes since the country switched to democracy in 1994.
He said there were conspiracies to commit crimes, drug trafficking, even human trafficking and instances of lower-level white-collar crimes where people were literally swindling institutions.
“These are extremely complicated cases for people who have not been trained sufficiently,” Nyirenda was quoted as saying adding that the courts got convictions that were not supposed to be convictions and acquittals that were also not supposed to be acquittals.
On her part African Commission's special representative for prisoners, Verah Chirwa said prisoners’ welfare on the continent was poor.
“The conditions are almost the same. In Malawi , in South Africa , in Mozambique , in almost every country I have visited. I have been to France , and I have seen the prisons there. In Africa , they would be hotels,” Chirwa, a lawyer and human rights activist said who had spent over 10 years in a Malawian Prison during the one party era.
Penal Reform International (PRI) Regional Director for Africa Marie-Dominique Parent concurred with Chirwa that lives of the over 1 million prisners on the continent were at stake.
“Most African governments spend little on justice, and what little is spent goes mostly to the police and courts,” she said adding, “Prisons are at the bottom of the heap.” When starvation is part of prison punishment