CHREAA reiterates calls for more funding in prisons.

Centre for Human Rights Education Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) is calling for adequate funding in the countries prisons if the correctional facilities are to address hunger issues.

The call comes as prison authorities have announced that at least 29 inmates at Dedza Prison are malnourished.

One of the remedial measures taken is provision of Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods locally known as Chiponde to the affected prisoners and two meals instead of one per day.

According to spokesperson for Dedza prison Holman Majiga, the convicts are currently being monitored by a team of health personnel at the facility to assess their health.

“We have pressed them on two-month special supervision programs that are being monitored by our clinical team. Besides that, we are also giving them a balanced diet and we have started providing them with two meals per day so that we prevent future instances of malnourishment” Majiga said.

Meanwhile, CHREAA executive director Victor Mhango says there is a need to address funding hiccups as hunger remains an issue in the prisons.

“For the prison, it’s even worse because in the prison they keep people so if they are not funded, then it burdens the officers, the senior officers for the Malawi Prison Service to make sure that they should be looking for food, which is a tall order.

So sometimes they can stay without food or maybe they will eat, but the food is not balanced enough that is good for human consumption.

And this also defeats the judgment which was there during the Gebema Sandano judgment, whereby the court indicated that the prison, they need to change the diet, but because of the resources, they have not changed” Mhango explained.

A study by university academics has found that on average the Malawi’s 12,000 prisoners receive just 17% of the recommended daily food provision and that 89% of them are severely food insecure.