Support fresh efforts to reform our prisons

Prison reform has been on the cards for long. After the Narc victory in 2002, major steps were made to change conditions in the prisons and give them a new orientation as correctional institutions.

A lot of investment was put in to improve the welfare of both the inmates and the warders, the latter having suffered due to poor terms and conditions of service.

But the reform agenda stalled somewhat. Enthusiasm died and resources dwindled.

So it is encouraging to learn that the Ministry of Home Affairs is coming up with proposals to improve prison conditions.

Specifically, the ministry seeks to decongest prisons by releasing petty offenders or those inmates who have mended their ways.

The permanent secretary in the Office of the Vice-President and Ministry of Home Affairs, Dr Ludeki Chweya, says about half of the current inmates, more than 20,000, could be released by end of the year through clemency. Currently, the prisons hold 52,000 inmates against a capacity of 22,000.

Unlike in the past when this was done at the prerogative of the President, this time round, it would be done after a careful analysis by the Power of the Mercy Committee.

This means that even those on long jail terms will benefit so long as they demonstrate that they have changed their behaviour.

Reducing the number of inmates eases the burden on prisons. That allows the government to re-direct resources to improve conditions and make them true correctional institutions, and not the life-threatening dens they currently are.

Prison reform will only succeed if related institutions such as the Judiciary and the police change the way they handle suspects. The Judiciary, for example, needs to guard against a situation where petty offenders get long custodial sentences and end up congesting the prisons.