The government to work on dilapidated prisons in the country

DESPITE of financial constraints, the Government is trying all it can in order to fulfill its long term program of constructing new prison cells, and doing renovation works on old prisons in the country so as to accommodate the increased number of inmates, the Parliament has been informed. The move b y the government is to curb with the congestion of inmates as the situation is currently seen in most prisons in the country,  a situation that is described to be against the human rights. The Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Pereira Silima said in Parliament yesterday that, “despite of budget constraint, the government through prisons department has been striving hard to avert the impending situation which has become notorious in most prisons in the country”. Minister Silima was responding a question on behalf of the Minister for Home Affairs which was earlier asked by the Anna Mallac (Chadema) Special seat . The legislator wanted to know what steps has the government taken in order to relieve a horrible situation as seen in a prison cell of the Mpanda district in which she disclosed that a single room accommodates 50 inmates instead of 21. She also wanted to know how far has the government fulfilled its promises of constructing new houses for prison staff and do renovation work in some extremely dilapidated houses, as well as plans by the government to ensure an effective water supply in various prisons in the country. In answering such queries,

Deputy Minister for Home affairs, Pereira Silima

Minister Silima noted that the government has been executing the program in different phases by building new prisons in newly established districts, and at the same time doing extensions and renovation works on some of the old prisons constructed during colonial time in various parts in the country. “The issue of the congestion of prisoners in some of our prisoners in the country is a well known issue and the government is doing all it can in order to reduce the situation which is seen to be growing at an alarming rate”, he said adding that this is due to fewer infrastructures currently available in most prisons which he said are unable to accommodate the number of inmates. Apart from the renovations and the new construction taking place in various prisons in the country, the minister also noted that, the government is also working on the infrastructures such as the water supplies to various prisons whose supplies are not efficient. In addition to that, the minister noted that, the Prisons is in place to provide water services by building and renovating the infrastructural upgrades of both clean and sewer water systems in all prisons in the country. However, he said the later program has not been effectively taking place in some prisons in the country due to the continued budget constraint which the government has been issuing to the Ministry of Home Affairs.