Food distribution at Chichiri Prison, 2015 [Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF]
Human rights advocates are urging the tabling and passing of a new Prison Bill to facilitate decongestion of Malawi prisons.
The call was made in Lilongwe at a press briefing organised by the Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREA) in conjunction with the Malawi Human Rights Commission and the Irish Rule of Law on the status of the country’s prisons.
According to the stakeholders, a prison audit done at Maula and Kachere prisons discovered that 66 percent of the remandees were eligible for release and in Mzuzu 61 percent of remandees were eligible for release.
The rights groups added that the audit also revealed that about 80 percent of convicted prisoners in Maula and Kachere prisons are eligible for release and that 61 percent are also eligible in Mzuzu.
The stakeholders believe the only way to deal with the congestion in prisons is through the enactment of a new law.
According to the Malawi Human Rights Commission, prisoners are among the people in the country whose rights are being violated because of the lack of a progressive piece of legislation.
Malawi is using a Prison Act which was enacted in 1956 during the colonial era.
