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| Guards and inmates at Maula Prison |
Dyton said she was looking after six orphans and a blind mother. Besides that, she was a widow. She did not mince words when worship Phiri wanted to know what she intended to do with the drug. Humbly and honestly she answered: “ndimafuna ndikagulitse kuti ndithandizikire. Panyumba pali umphawi waukulu zedi! (I wanted to sell to earn money with which I could provide for my dependants. My family is going through excruciating poverty).”
On her own plea of guilty, the learned magistrate found her guilty and subsequently convicted her on the same [being found in possession of chamba]. Magistrate Esther Elia Phiri set the following day (August 30), as the day court would give its sentence. I went as early as two hours earlier than the stated time in the court. I wanted to hear for myself the sentence the widow would receive for committing a serious crime so that I would blow a whistle to warn others with similar intentions.
As a layman, I thought the widow had bargained enough in her well-presented mitigation. In her mitigation, Dyton asked the court for mercy stressing it was her daunting responsibility of caring for more than she could manage herself a loafer. The woman does not do any formal work (employed work). All she does is farming without fotereza (as they call it in rural areas). You do not expect her to meet her obligations under such living conditions.
I was wrong to suggest or think that court would be lenient on her on the fact that she was a widow with seven empty stomachs waiting for her to fill including that of herself. Her Worship Phiri said it clear that poverty is no reason enough for one to indulge in illegal business. The magistrate argued that if the courts could exercise lenience basing on such facts, there be no sanity in our societies, as many people would be justified to commit similar offences out of poverty. In such situations, the magistrate noted, courts would find it difficult to discharge its duties because almost everybody claims to be poor in one way or the other.
“Being found in possession of chamba let alone trading therein is a serious offence as provided for in the penal code. The maximum penalty for the offence is death or life imprisonment depending on the amount of the hemp recovered and the circumstances,” read the magistrate as people sat quietly looking at the widow who was about to hang.
“However, considering the fact that this is your fist offence as submitted by the state, the court will exercise some leniency on you,” she said before she pronounced her sentence.
“I, therefore, order you to pay a fine of K20, 000 or in default serve 24 months imprisonment with hard labor. The sentence is with effect from the day of arrest [August 25],”the sentence was proclaimed attracting murmurs from the people attending the proceedings. The murmurs were not a sign of protest against the penalty, but rather, fear for the widow’s dependants. “Who will provide for her kids now that she is jailed?” some people asked each other outside court. If the woman had money, she would have paid and go back home to continue struggling for her larger-than-she-can-manage family. Unfortunately, the lady had no coin on her that could disentangle her from the hook. So like a lamb she was laid to her new home—Maula Prison—where she will be for well two years. As for the children and the blind granny, only God knows who will provide for them.
According to A Handbook For Courts on the Treatment of Offenders (The Sentence of the Court) Chapter3, page7, says and I quote: “criminal courts play a key role in the criminal justice system. The objectives of the system, writes the author, are to prevent, detect and punish crimes, and other agencies --- such as police, the prison service and the probation service (Community Service)—are involved in seeking to achieve them. There are three ways, generally, in which they might be expected to do so: by deterring potential offenders through fear of punishment; by influencing offenders who have been appropriately sentenced not to offend again; and by putting out of circulation, through custody, those who are a particular nuisance or a particular danger.”
I am interested in the two objectives, i.e., influencing offenders who have been appropriately sentenced not to offend again; and by putting out of circulation, through custody, those who are a particular nuisance or a particular danger.” I would like to believe that Mrs. Dorothy Dyton was a nuisance/ danger to our society, which is already, infested with moral decay hence the court giving her a custodial sentence having failed to pay the fine. Otherwise, suspended sentence or community service would have done.
The idea, I suppose, was to put her out of society to prevent further moral decay through [circulation of] chamba. You will all agree with me that the herb does not help a smoker/ user in anyway apart from degrading his/her mental capabilities. That is why the court chose to hand down two-year jail term (and not two-day jail term) imprisonment with hard labor. According to the court, Dyton was appropriately sentenced so that she should not to offend again after the service. Mrs. Dyton will, for two years, be far from her illegal business. As she comes back she will have forgotten it. That is what an innocent man out there would think.
But this will not be the case for her. It will be up to her to continue trading in the drug or not while serving her jail-term at Maula. At this institution, the herb is selling like hot cakes. Your questions would be: “Who smuggles chamba into those protected areas?”
Kondwani Mbunge told the reporter in an exclusive interview that the drug is brought into the wires courtesy of prison guards. He explained in detail that the guards usually come at night with opaque plastic bags containing the herbs for sale to anyone interested in the business. (Name) who has just been released from the institution, said the drug is brought in prison in large quantities more than that which had made Mrs. Dyton a prisoner at the institution.
“They come at night carrying black plastic bags containing chamba. Anyone is free to order for resale to fellow inmates,” said the just-released slave.
Two officials at the institution (Mr. Chima—09297008 and Mr. Moyo) confirmed the presence of the illicit drug in an interview on condition of strict anonymity. The duo said it was true some warders are trading in the herb, which is described as painkiller for inmates on hard labor.
“Most prisoners smoke to lessen their pain of staying in the wires for years without their loved ones. Actually, some call it mthetsa-nkhawa,” he said.
But is it healthy for people employed to inculcate good character into our wayward sons and daughters in prison to supply the illegal drug to the very people the society/court found nuisance? I am told chamba is illegal in our country because it influences the smoker/user to behave like a wild animal (to lose senses). Should we expect our children to come back with good manners from the jail under conditions where intoxicants are supplied to lessen pain or worries?
If Mrs. Dorothy Dyton is in prison today, she is there simply because she wanted to make a living out of this illegal herb. Is it justified that prison guards should be making bucks out of the same illegal business and get away with it? I feel these warders trading in chamba, too, need reformation. If Dyton is in prison for being found in possession of Indian hemp, can’t these, too, join her for doing the same? Or should we assume they are immune from court proceedings?
Home Affairs Minister Honorable Earnest Malenga said like anybody else out there, warders are not immune from court proceedings. In a telephone interview from his office Malenga said if such practice is happening among prison guards, four steps have to be applied. The culprits have to be arrested, charged, tried before the court of law and get sentenced.
“Chamba is not allowed everywhere in the country and prison in not an exception. It is criminal to possess or sell the drug. That is why every new inmate, under normal procedure, has to be thoroughly searched so that nothing illegal should find its way in,” Malenga said.
“If they are caught, they have to be treated like any other citizen of this country. He should be arrested, charged, tried and sentenced like any citizen,” he added.
He asked responsible citizens to report warders trading in chamba to police so that they should be prosecuted like any citizen.
Prison’s spokesperson Tobias Noah concurred with the minister that chamba is illegal in prisons as it is outside. He, however, defended that it was unlikely for his charges to indulge in the trade.
Noah also asked anyone with information about certain warders selling chamba to inmates to let him know so that an appropriate action should be taken.
“Report such kind of people to us so that an appropriate action should be taken. Such people are denting the good image of Prisons’ Department,” he said.
But the minister said he doubted the thinking capacity of such people (warders) because “as people entrusted with responsibility to teach others good behavior, they were not supposed to be in the forefront making blunders.”
“A prison warder with sound mind cannot do that. Such kind of people are a disgrace,” he noted.
END
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