Lilongwe to have Maximum Security Prison

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR

  Sorry state inside Zomba Prison: Picture courtesy of amnesty.org

Malawi Prison Service (PS) has finally acquired land in Lilongwe where it is planning to construct a state-of-the-art maximum prison facility in place of Zomba Central Prison.

Zomba Central Prison, built in 1935, is the only maximum security prison in the country, holding prisoners with long sentences or serious offences, but human rights activists have condemned it for its poor conditions describing it “a death trap”.

PS spokesperson Evance Phiri said in an interview Thursday that the new prison facility will ease congestion problems that Malawian reformatory centres are best known for.

Phiri disclosed the new prison was a response to human rights’ call to have another facility in place of Zomba.

“Yes, it’s true that we are constructing a new maximum security prison in Lilongwe near Chitedze area. You know that human rights campaigners have long condemned Zomba Prison as unfit for human accommodation,” said Phiri.

The prison PRO further disclosed that work on the new prison has already started, but could not say when the project will be through.

“It’s in phases; so I can’t say actual dates of its completion. But suffice to say that after this project, we’ll carry out a mass rehabilitation project on Zomba Prison to give it a new face make it more habitable,” he explained.

Asked how much the project will cost, Phiri said it was difficult to quantify “because it run in phases”. So far, the prison department has already spent K80 million on and blue-print design) and compensating people surrounding the location of the new prison.

This is how prisoners sleep: Pic courtesy of amnesty.org

Earlier in the week, reports were rife to the effect that prison authorities intend to relocate Chichiri Prison to Chigumula where there is enough space for expansion and development.

But Phiri said his office does not have information relating to the movement of the Blantyre-based reformatory facility.

Our sources had confided that Chichiri Prison will be moving to Chigumula because the current structure is standing on a private property. The confidants further explained that the land is “too small for expansion”.

END