Mozambique: Magistrates assigned to jails to speed up cases, reduce overcrowding

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Mozambique: Magistrates assigned to jails to speed up cases, reduce overcrowding

3:55 CAT | 18 Aug 2022

Photo: O País

Magistrates are being assigned full time to jails across Mozambique in a bid to boost the pace at which cases are processed and reduce overcrowding, Minister for Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs Helena Kida has announced.

“It is easier to have magistrates assigned to the place where they have direct contact with the cases: this way they focus on the issue of overcrowding,” today’s issue of ‘O País’ quotes her as saying.

The placement of magistrates to work full-time in prisons is part of a pilot project implemented by the Ministry of Justice and initially covering just Maputo province and city.

The strategy, currently implemented in Maputo Provincial Penitentiary in Machava and the Preventive Penitentiary in Maputo city, is already having an effect, if not yet at the desired levels, she said.

“We need to replicate [the project in other penitentiaries in Maputo city and province], but we are doing it as a pilot project first, to see how it works, before moving on to other penal establishments in the country,” the minister explained.

Observing that Mozambique’s prisons currently house 22,000 inmates in establishments with an official capacity of 8,000, Helena Kida added that studies were underway to establish how many magistrates would be needed to cover all the prisons in the country.

She also remarked that the handing down in sentencing of alternatives to imprisonment was another way to reduce prison congestion. The granting of parole, where legally justified, could also help reduce overcrowding.

Source: Lusa / O País