Wed, 16 Aug 2017 09:20:59 +0000
By FLAVIOR KANUNGO
GOVERNMENT should take look into the plight of juveniles who are kept in adult prisons without trial for a long time, Obvious Mwaliteta has said.
The former Kafue Member of Parliament who spent 360 days at Chimbokaila Correctional Service in Lusaka has described the conditions at the institution as pathetic and not conducive for children.
Speaking when he featured on Prime Television’s oxygen programme, Mr Mwaliteta said the juveniles were being exposed to a lot bad vices including bad language and sexual assault. He said conditions of confinement and issues faced by juveniles in adult facilities were very risky and harmful adding that the suicide rate among juveniles held in jails was also high.
Mr Mwaliteta disclosed that most juveniles were being sodomised by elderly men and could not report anywhere a situation that would be hard to change once the child was out of detention.
He added that most juveniles were also kept in detention without trial and that deaths of detainees were kept secret.
Mr Mwaliteta has since called for concerted efforts from both Government and Human Rights Commission to protect young inmates from predatory older inmates and safeguard the lives of juveniles regardless of the crime they committed because they were the future of Zambia.
Meanwhile Zambia Correctional Service public relations Manager Margaret Nawa admitted housing juveniles in adult prisons in an interview but clarified that those kept there were on transit.
