Maputo — The national managing director of Mozambique's National Prison System, Joao Zandamela, said last week in the southern province of Gaza, that most of the existing 119 jails in the country are overcrowded, reports Monday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais". .

At present, according to Zandamela, there are 13,453 detainees in the country, of who 4,704 are still awaiting trial.

Citing as an example the town of Xai-Xai, capital of Gaza, the only existing prison was initially designed to accommodate at most 50 detainees, but is currently hosting over 300. (In Gaza there are still four districts without jails).

"It is hard under those conditions to ensure other detainees' rights, such as basic medical care. To make matters worse, some of the detainees are incarcerated when they are already ill, and there their health condition worsens, and if they are suffering from a highly transmissible disease they will infect the others", said Zandamela.

Most worrying is the fact that more than half of the detainees (64 per cent) are serving prison sentences varying from three months to one year, being in most cases convicted by theft.

To solve the problem of overcrowding in the prison system, and of the huge number of people still waiting for trial, the Mozambican Police (PRM) proposes the strengthening of community policing, involving members of the same communities, while the Justice System proposes a reform in the legal system seeking to adjust sentences to the local reality. This could also be done with the involvement of the local communities.

On Thursday, experts from the Justice Ministry and of the Interior have presented during a meeting with the local chiefs in Gaza a new action plan for the Prevention and Fight Against Crime, which among others, seeks to mobilize the whole society in the fight against crime in Mozambique.

On the occasion, Eduardo Mussanhane, coordinator of the Citizen's Support to Legal Access Project, said that under the current legislation, the judge could decide to convert prison sentences of up to one year into fines, but that most of the convicted are unable to pay due to lack of funds.