Conditions in prisons are horrific and inhabitable

COPPERBELT Law Association of Zambia Human Rights Commission (LAZ-HRC) Copperbelt Convenor Wilson Banda has said the conditions in prisons are horrific and inhabitable. Mr Banda said in an interview that as a human right commissioner he had been privileged to go in some prisons and the conditions were bad. He said being in prison was not being on death roll but a seclusion area for the transformation of people who were convicted of various offences. He said that even those on death roll were supposed to be exposed to good condition until their day of execution. Mr Banda bemoaned that even the post-prison condition were bad and that suspects were treated like prisoners even before the commencement of trial and before the judicial process was completed. He said the true justice of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ was not working in Zambia.

“Some suspects even fail to defend themselves fully because they think that once they have been arrested by police then the next step is going to be told the number of years to save in prison,” he said He said the attitude towards suspects and inmates was defeating the whole process of the judicial process. The Convenor said that even after conviction, inmates who were not convicted to death, had still some rights like right to life which meant they had right to eat, drink and sleep among rights. Mr Banda of Wilson and Cornhill chambers said LAW-HRC would be happy if the current team of expert charged with the responsibility of constitution making process could add the whole human right embodiment. Mr Banda said the commission was hoping that the team of experts would bring on board all the draft constitutions the country had and bring out the aspirations of the Zambians. He said the whole point of wanting a people driven constitution was to ensure that humans’ rights were justiciable, meaning that people would be free to seek court readdress once their rights were trampled upon. If human rights were simply embodied in the constitution without making them justiciable then the whole point of human right is lost. Mr Banda said that if the human rights were not justiciable then people’s rights would continue to be trampled upon. He said the commission would also be looking forward to the inclusion of protection against property grabbing. He said the inclusion of the Act would ensure that orphans, widows and widowers were not harassed after the demise of their parents or spouse.