Malawi Prisons Service (MPS) on 15th July, 2019 announced that it would soon start releasing selected inmates in various prisons before the expiry of their custodial sentences through a system called parole.
This was said during the opening of Correction Management Course that MPS through its legal office organized for Senior Prisons Officers at Prisons Training School at Mapanga in Blantyre.
Prisons Assistant Commissioner responsible for Legal Affairs Bazirial Chapuwala said the course had been tailored to impart officers with knowledge and skills regarding parole and enabling MPS to move away from security and punishment of inmates to more of a correctional facility.
“We are reviewing the Prisons Act which is giving guidelines on how the parole will be conducted and implemented. In fact, our Penal Code recognizes parole and we are taking that direction as a way of reducing congestion in our prisons,” he said.
Presiding over the inauguration ceremony, Homeland Security Minister Nicholas Dausi, said time had come for MPS to start focusing on reforming inmates.
“Prisons department has to change its ways to match the global dynamism.
In the past, the emphasis was on punishment and not correction of the inmates. I have gone through the course and I am confident that it would benefit the service, “Dausi said.
He also challenged MPS management to ensure that the objectives of the training were met and that the fruits of it be seen in the prisons service as today’s prison is human rights-based. He further said everyone is a potential prisoner and that there is a need to build good prisons with humane standards for everyone.
Speaking at the same function, Chief Commissioner for Prisons, Ms. Wandika Phiri said MPS was implementing many projects to improve lives of inmates and prison officers.
She said: “All over the world, prisons are reforming, they are places of reformation and correction of prisoners. We have officers from Zambia Correction Service to share their experience on management of prisoners.”
The parole system gives offenders a chance to mend their ways by, after exhibiting positive behavior, giving them recourse to go back home, where they are monitored for any signs of wayward behavior.
Contrary to presidential pardon, where on public holidays such as independence celebrations and other events the state president derogatively pardon inmates who satisfy some required conditions , the parole system does not let someone scot-free completely. Parole Officers continue to monitor inmates after being released from prison. Parole may give inmates a chance to change thereby contributing fully to national development efforts.
Congestion in the country’s prisons has become one of the major factors that fuel poor sanitation resulting in transmission of communicable diseases.
A 2018 Malawi Inspectorate of Prisons Report to Parliament indicates that the country’s 23 prisons are overcrowded.
“Overall, the prison system is at 260 percent of its official capacity, with 14,778 inmates occupying spaces constructed for only 5,680 inmates. On the relevant dates of inspection, only three prisons were within their official population capacity,” the report reads.