This disease that is ravaging the whole world is leading governments to make the most difficult of decisions.
The one large gathering of people in a confined space that cannot be eradicated is the prisons.
So what happens to these people, because eventually this disease will reach the prisons?
The Zambia Prisons Service has been quite proactive so far and they need to be commended for this.
They have banned all visitations to the prisons which is the right thing to do, and they need to be applauded for taking this action quickly.
From observation of what other countries are doing, we may wish to adopt some of those measures like ;
1: Establishing more temporary jails with tents, barbed and razor wire in secluded areas to decongest the prisons. The less violent prisoners can be moved to these temporal jails.
2: Reviewing the prisoners list, those that are due for release in the next few weeks can be released early subject to the President’s approval and recommendations of prisons commissioner.
They can look at those that are non violent, who will not pose a risk to the public when released.
For example, we have people in jail today who stole a cow or food from a shop. Such individuals should be looked upon as possibly qualifying for early release if they’ve served a substantial part of their sentence.
We have that young woman who was jailed 10 years recently for being in possession of Marijuana.
The President does this exercise every year and that’s how he determines who he releases on Africa Freedom Day or Independence Day in his powers of prerogative of mercy.
This does not apply to murderers, armed robbers, hardened criminals, defilers and the like. These should remain in prison regardless of the circumstances.
We are talking about those who committed crimes that were not violent and have served a substantial amount of their sentence and may be close to release, and or don’t pose a violent risk to the public.
All countries badly affected by this have had to make these decisions and soon President Edgar Lungu will have to make this decision.
This is in no way a criticism of government, but this is a decision that President Edgar Lungu will have to make very soon and his subordinates in the ministry of Home Affairs and the Prisons Service need to start working on this matter now so that they assist the President in arriving at the right decisions. -NDC Media