Zambia: Prison conditions

Edda Costarelli, October 2001

Prison conditions are harsh and life threatening in Zambia due to severe overcrowding, meagre food supplies, lack of potable water and inadequate sanitary conditions. Outbreaks of tuberculosis and dysentery are common. Poor remand prison conditions became visible in 1998 and 1999 when a number of detainees collapsed in court.

In a report submitted to Parliament in 1996 the Commissioner of Prisons said that 975 prisoners had died in prison between January 1991 and December 1995 due to illness and harsh conditions. The death rate of prison inmates remained about the same during the year and the Commissioner of Prisons has submitted no further such reports since 1996.

According to the Magistrates and Judges Association, the Kamwala Remand Prison in Lusaka alone contained 3 times as many people as it had been designed to hold. In March 2000 the Commissioner of Prisons attributed the serious overcrowding in prisons to the slow pace at which the courts disposed of cases. The Commissioner noted that some cases have been pending since 1991. Thereafter, the Magistrates and Judges Association of Zambia expressed its intention in March to undertake efforts to release all eligible detainees on bail in order to reduce prison congestion.

Most recently, speaking before the UN's Committee against Torture, the government delegation from Zambia testified that steps were also taken to improve food and clothing and reduce overcrowding in prisons. The delegation reaffirmed the commitment to develop a prosecutions policy that would make prosecutions more humane.

Source

IRIN 2001, "UN Committee Against Torture probes government," UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Johannesburg, South Africa, 20 November.