Mozambican jails hold 11,800 inmates more than their capacity

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambican jails hold 11,800 inmates more than their capacity

12:00 CAT | 21 Jul 2017

File photo

The Mozambican jails currently hold 11,800 inmates above their 8,200 maximum capacity, according to figures from the National Penitentiary Service (SERNAP) reported released yesterday by Notícias, the country’s main daily newspaper.

Data provided by SERNAP during a visit by President Filipe Nyusi to the Ministry of Justice on Thursday indicate that the country has 84 jails, which currently house 19,000 inmates.

Commenting on the numbers, President Nyusi expressed concern about the overcrowding, stressing the importance of speed in finding alternative measures to imprisonment.

“I am concerned about overcrowding, not only because of conditions for the inmates, but also because some of them should not be there, the time of their sentence having already been served,” the Mozambican head of state said.

If alternative measures to prison were implemented, the head of state continued, 37 percent of prisoners would be released. “We have to move forward with concrete measures to decongest our prison facilities,” he emphasized.

According to SERNAP, of the total number of prisoners in Mozambique, 6,253 are Mozambicans in pre-trial detention, with 77 foreigners in the same condition. As for convicts, 12,571 are Mozambicans and 208 foreign.

Outside of Mozambique, 3,054 Mozambicans are imprisoned, of whom 753 are on remand and 2,301 tried and convicted.

Source: Lusa