Poor treatment of prisoners to lead to severe penalty

Stringent disciplinary and legal actions would be meted out to prisons officers who mistreat inmates, Home Affairs Minister Joseph Mungai warned yesterday.

By Angel Navuri

Stringent disciplinary and legal actions would be meted out to prisons officers who mistreat inmates, Home Affairs Minister Joseph Mungai warned yesterday.

Mungai who was opening a two-day meeting for senior prisons officers in Dar es Salaam yesterday called on the prisons officers to respect their professional ethics, good governance and human rights.

“Prisons law prohibits mistreatment of prisoners. We will take serious actions against prisons officers who violate the law,“ said the minister.

According to the minister, the prisons circular contains rules and regulations on ethics, human rights and good governance.

“I appeal to all of you to remind each other of the law,“ added the minister.

The minister said human rights were one of the global agenda, which require governments to respect in keeping with world security and peace.

“Respect for good governance and human rights serves as the foundation for security and peace in the country,“ he told the meeting.

Mungai said the government will increase budget for Prisons Department in the coming budget to help it reduce its debts by 75 per cent.

Tanzania Prisons Services Commissioner Nicas Banzi said the government support helps to improve prisons performance.

“We face many problems, including congestion of prisoners and debts. But the government support has been relieving us from these problems.

We have substantially reduced our debts from people who rendered us various services,“ said Banzi.

Giving details, the commissioner said presidential pardons reduced the number of prisoners from 42,401 on April 1, 2007 to 39,180.

The government had pledged to settle debts that tenderers owe the department, he said.

The two-day meeting is aimed at identifying problems facing the department and chart out measures to improve its performance.

Source: Guardian