ABOUT 350 prisoners died from tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS-related diseases countrywide last year, the Parliamentary committee on health heard yesterday.

The committee also learnt that recruits into police and the prison service were being subjected to mandatory HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis testing.

Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant-General Ronnie Shikapwasha said when he appeared before the committee it was not true that three prisoners were dying in a day at Lusaka Central prison.

This was in response to Malole MP Sebio Mukuka (MMD) who said going to prison in Zambia was like going to hell because of the poor state of the prisons.

Gen Shikapwasha said last year alone the prison service recorded 350 deaths.

Currently data is being collected to ascertain the number of chronically ill prisoners in order to secure high protein food supplements alongside presidential quarterly releases of sick inmates.

Gen Shikapwasha said his ministry was genuinely concerned about congestion in prisons in the face of disease outbreaks, poor health environment and run-down water reticulation and sanitary systems.

He said efforts were being made to secure financial help from cooperating partners to construct a new prison at Mwembeshi at a cost of K2 billion and improve the water reticulation system in existing prisons.

He told the committee chaired by Mapatizya MP Grace Sialumba (UPND) that the prison service was overwhelmed as out of the 13, 500 prisoners countrywide, 55 per cent were remandees waiting to appear in court.

Asked about the policy on recruitment by Livingstone MP Sakwiba Sikota (UPND), Gen Shikapwasha said HIV/AIDS and TB tests were part of routine medical check-up.

"Recruits have to undergo medical tests which are then referred to the medical board who determine the physical fitness.

It is not mandatory as such but HIV tests form part of the cocktail check and if found to be HIV positive, the officer cannot be recruited," he said.

When Vubwi MP Phillip Phiri (UNIP) asked why prisoners were being taken to hospital on wheelbarrows, prison secretary Senior Superintendent Lloyd Chilundika said stretchers and not wheelbarrows were used due to a critical shortage of transport.

And when pressed to give a time frame for decongesting the prisons and rehabilitating the inmates, assistant secretary (projects) Monty Mulikita said it was difficult because the problem involved other wings of Government.

Some of the options being considered was community sentence and parole.

Meanwhile, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) national secretary Ernest Mwansa told the committee on information that media heads should be punished by dismissal for being biased during elections.

He condemned the introduction of K3,000 television licences for a media that did not accord fair coverage to citizens and political parties.

Earlier MISA-Zambia chairman Kellys Kaunda said private partners should be invited to run ZNBC and raise capital.