The Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) has acknowledged the existence of provisions allowing inmates to legally be granted permission to attend funerals of close relatives.
Mr. Malembeka’s remarks follows an appeal from the opposition Patriotic Front (PF), for former lawmaker , Nixon Chilangwa’s temporal release to attend his wife’s funeral who passed away in Ndola after a short illness.
Speaking in an interview with RCV News in Lusaka today, PRISCCA Executive Director, Godfrey Malembeka, says the law provides for such temporal releases commonly referred to as compassionate leave, but the limited number of security officers makes it difficult to escort the inmates safely to and from funeral gatherings.
“The policy window is there, but the challenge is the understaffing levels for security not only for state benefit but also for the inmate”, said Mr. Malembeka.
He has since called on government to work on the number of security personnel and put this policy into practice.
By Margaret Mwanza
