Food shortages facing the country have not spared the Malawi Prison Services (MPS) as fears grow that within two months all the prisons will not have enough food supplies.
MPS commissioner for the Central Region, Yaphet Chimodzi, confirmed in an interview that there are many challenges facing the institution, including hunger.
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He said: “We are facing so many challenges due to reduced funding. We have 32 prisons with 13 500 prisoners who are mostly fed once a day.
“We are afraid that with so many prisoners in our cells, we will fail to feed them and this is a recipe for trouble.”
Prison spokesperson Evance Phiri agreed with Chimodzi that the hunger situation the country is facing has not spared prisons.
Malawi’s prisons are congested with, for example, Maula Prison in Lilongwe, keeping 2 0000 inmates against its recommended capacity of 850.
Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) executive director Timothy Mtambo recently told The Nation that prisoners deserve dignity and proper food.
Malawi is facing food shortage due to reduced harvest following combined effects of drought and floods earlier this year. n
