Malawi prison authorities defy court order over congestion

Prison authorities continue to highly congest prisons in the country flatly defying a Constitutional Court order to decongest them.

The Constitutional Court recently ordered prison authorities to decongest prisons by releasing some inmates with petty crimes.

Centre for Human Rights, Education and Advice (CHREAA) executive director Victor Mhango said the situation in prisons remains worse than ever before.

“The prison authorities are failing to implement the court ruling because they do not have the powers to release inmates,” said Mhango.

He said his organization has already filed cases in the courts to give powers to the prison authorities to release prisoners in order to decongest the prisons.