Alarm over increasing death rate in Malawi Prisons

Whether guilty or innocent, people jailed in the country’s prisons are still people. Their cries for help should not go ignored. Officials from Prison services have pressed an alarm button over the increasing death rate of convicts due to preventable diseases.

Prison official Ian Chadza said it was pathetic that prisoners are dying due to communicable diseases like TB which he said is rampant in prison cells across the country due to poor sanitation.

He also said most convicts are living an uncomfortable life due to scabies and asked well wishers to come and help the situation.

Chadza said the current death rate in prisons in Malawi stands at 10 deaths per 10,000 prisoners, saying this is a high rate considering that the prison has a population of 13,000 inmates.

Prison Department, just like any other government department, is facing huge budgetary cuts due to economic problems the country is facing following the withdrawal of budgetary support from Malawi’s traditional donors.

Medicins sans Frontier has since signed an agreement with Malawi Health School of Sciences to provide volunteer health personnel in prisons to help provide health services to the prisons.