EASTERN Province Administration has urged the Correctional Service Commission to work on the expansion of Correctional Centres in the region.
Provincial Deputy Permanent Secretary, Lewis Mwape, says the expansion of Correctional Centres will help decongest the facilities.
Dr. Mwape said Eastern Province was ready to support the agenda of the expansion of the Correctional Centres in the region because the facilities had not been expanded since independence.
He was speaking when Chairperson of the Zambia Correction Service, Evaristo Kalonga, paid a courtesy call on him in Chipata on Friday.
Dr. Mwape noted that currently, there were 3,331 inmates in correctional facilities dotted around the province, adding that most of them were built when the population of the country was just slightly over three million.
“We hope that more and more centres will come, especially that the facilities that we have were built when the population of the country was very small. The construction or expansion of the facilities will help manage overcrowding in these correctional Centres,” he said.
Dr. Mwape also commended the Zambia Correctional Service for improving its financial standing by engaging in construction of Chiefs’ palaces.
He observed that in terms of quality on the construction, the correctional service did well except for minor issues in Katete and Petauke, emphasising the need to be particular with monitoring progress of the constructions.
And Correctional Service Commission Chairperson, Evaristo Kalonga, said since the last tour of the province by the commission, there had been improvement in terms of infrastructure construction.
Mr Kalonga noted that inmates slept in good conditions coupled with running water in facilities, adding that so far, the facilities visited had running water, courtesy of the Eastern Water and Sanitation Company.
He assured that the government took interest in the welfare of officers and inmates in the correctional facilities.
Mr Kalonga said the commission, working together with the government, would identify satellite points in the province for establishment of open air centres.
“Government is doing all it can to ensure the concerns of the Provincial Administration are attended to. Even the issue of decentralizing human resource matters, we are already looking at that and as you may be aware, in Eastern Province, we already have a Human Resource Management Committee,” he said.
