Africa-Press – Angola. Four hundred and 75 inmates, including detainees and convicts, are currently incarcerated in the Nkiende prison unit, in the municipality of Mbanza Kongo, province of Zaire, which has an installed capacity of 250 people.
The information was provided this Wednesday, by the provincial director of Prison Services, prison chief superintendent Ezequiel Kalupeteca.
The official justified that overcrowding in jails is a national phenomenon and that it has to do with the growth of cities and towns, as well as the population.
“Overcrowding is a penitentiary phenomenon (…) because as cities and towns grow, so does the number of individuals who tend to commit crimes”, he underlined.
In his view, overcrowding is also a consequence of the reinforcement of the operational capacity of the police and criminal investigation bodies in the clarification of crimes and, consequently, of the application of serious coercive measures.
On the other hand, Ezequiel Kalupeteca denied that there were cases of excessive preventive detention in the two prisons available in the province, Nkiende (Mbanza Kongo) and Mangue Grande (Soyo).
He explained that cases of preventive detention have seen a significant reduction in recent years, for whom this matter needs permanent review, taking into account the dynamics of criminal proceedings and prison life.
Incidentally, he reported that in the course of 2022, the agency controlled a movement of 3,123 prisoners, 1,754 of whom were convicted and 1,396 in pre-trial detention, having formalized the arrest of 717 prisoners and released 783 others.
In the field of medical assistance, the official pointed out acute diarrhoea, malaria and tuberculosis as the pathologies that most affected the penal population in the region in 2022, with the registration of 13 deaths.
He assured that the Prison Services work in collaboration with the health sector in the province, a partnership that allows medical teams to travel to prisons to provide medical and medication assistance to inmates.
The Nkiende prison is located 32 kilometers from the city of Mbanza Kongo, capital of the province of Zaire.
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