Wed, 30 Aug 2017 10:42:41 +0000
By Oliver Samboko
COMMISSIONER General of the Zambia Correctional Services, Percy Chato says his command attaches great relevance and significance to the health of prisoners under its care.
Addressing health personnel from the ZCS when he opened a two-week sensitisation workshop on the comprehensive package for HIV services in prison settings and the Nelson Mandela Rules at Lake Safari Lodge in Siavonga, Mr Chato said the service has inadequate personnel to man the increasing demand for health services for the inmates.
He disclosed that currently, the Service has only 80 health personnel countrywide against the ever increasing number of inmates which stands at over 20,998 and staff establishment of 3,053.
Mr Chato called on Government to recruit more health personnel for the service, adding “a correctional approach requires adequate human resource which the service currently does not have. I wish to use this platform to call upon the government to look into recruiting more officers and specialised personnel to address these challenges.”
He said the Service desires to have health workers in all the ten provinces but also was quick to mention that the government has been instrumental in addressing the staffing challenges faced by the service.
Mr Chato thanked the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime for convening a workshop for health workers under the correctional service in an effort to improve the health of inmates.
He said empirical evidence show that globally, prisons and other closed settings are characterised by relatively high prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B and C and Tuberculosis (TB).
In addition there is relatively higher risks for transmission which is coupled with lower access to health services, isolated from public health services, including national AIDS or TB programmes adding that prisons and other closed settings are often seriously neglected in the country’s responses to address HIV and TB prevention, treatment and care.
Mr Chato said HIV prevalence in prisons stands at 27.3 percent among the inmate population with overcrowding at 245 percent.
He said the service relies on only 24 health facilities which are located in some selected correctional facilities countrywide against 54 conventional correctional centres.
Mr Chato said with the paradigm shift from prisons to corrections, there is need to scale up treatment and preventive services to persons living with, and at risk with HIV and other communicable diseases in correctional settings.
He said the workshop is necessary as it ensures that officers working in correctional centres/prisons understand how imprisonment affects health, what prisoners’ health needs are and how evidence-based health services can be provided for everyone needing treatment, care and prevention in correctional centres.
