By CHUSA SICHONE –
THE Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) has appealed to the Government to consider constructing a subordinate and local court complex within the vicinity of the two ultra-modern prisons set to be built in Mwembeshi.
This follows a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the Zambia Correctional Service (ZCS) and developers to erect two prisons in Mwembeshi, where inmates at Lusaka Central and Kamwala Remand prisons would be relocated.
PRISCCA executive director Godfrey Malembeka said construction of modern and humane correctional facilities was a commendable move, but that there was need to supplement that with the construction of the court complex.
Dr Malembeka said in an interview at the weekend that constructing the court complex in Mwembeshi would lessen transport challenges which would arise to ferry inmates from Mwembeshi to Lusaka to appear before courts.
“The Government should also begin thinking of putting up another complex, we want a complex for both Local Courts and Subordinate courts just opposite or near that correctional facility complex otherwise, we are going to create another problem,” he said.
Dr Malembeka said PRISCCA did not want a situation, where inmates were failing to appear before the courts owing to transport challenges to ferry them from Mwembeshi to Lusaka.
Dr Malembeka, however, said PRISCCA supported the plans to construct two ultra-modern correctional facilities in Mwembeshi as this would be in tandem with the ZCS new name and approach of handling inmates to rehabilitate or correct them in a conducive environment.
ZCS Commissioner-General Percy Chato recently said the inmates at Lusaka Central and Kamwala Remand prisons would be relocated to Mwembeshi only after the developers constructed the correctional facilities.
The developers would thereafter be handed the Lusaka Central and Kamwala Remand prisons land in exchange for the construction of the ultra-modern facilities in Mwembeshi with a combined capacity to accommodate 3,300 inmates as per PPP agreement.
