Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican government announced on Monday the introduction of 3,000 electronic bracelets in the prison service, a “strategic and giant step”, said the Minister for Justice, to relieve pressure on the system, reduce expenses and humanise the establishments.
This measure “will ease pressure on the prison system and allow for an immediate reduction in state expenditure in this sector,” said Mateus Saize, Mozambican Minister for Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, during the launch of the electronic bracelet pilot project in Maputo.
Minister Saíze explained that this will represent a reduction to 30,000 meticais (€404.3) from the approximately 150,000 meticais (€2,000) currently spent per year per prisoner, a difference which, for Mateus Saize, “highlights the urgent need to adopt intelligent, sustainable solutions in line with international best practices”.
The launch of the bracelets also demonstrates an evolution in Mozambican justice towards “a model that combines firmness, efficiency, economic rationality and respect for human rights,” said the Minister for Justice, recalling that deprivation of liberty should not be seen as punishment, but rather as a stage of accountability, re-education and opportunity for reintegration.
“I emphasise that this project represents a clear political decision to modernise with courage, invest responsibly and serve citizens with dignity and respect for the law, which is a firm step towards building a more efficient, more humane and more people-friendly justice system,” Saize stressed.
The Minister also explained, without giving details about the amount invested, that the monitoring equipment is properly installed and operational, with a technical team composed of other police forces that can intervene in response to “any situations of alert for violation of the rules of use of the bracelets”.
The placement of the bracelets is still awaiting the “careful selection” of inmates, in a process involving the court, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Prison Service (SERNAP, said the Minister, noting that Mozambique spends an average of three billion meticais (€40 million) per year to keep the prison system running.
The Minister also said that the accumulated savings will allow, within a horizon of five years, the country to channel more than 1.8 billion meticais (€24 million) into “essential priorities, such as improving prison infrastructure, strengthening rehabilitation and social reintegration programmes, and investing in technologies that modernise and make the administration of justice more efficient”.
Mozambique has a problem of prison overcrowding, housing around 21,000 prisoners for an installed capacity of 4,498, according to data from the Ministry of Justice.
In November, the Minister for Justice announced the construction of 13 new prisons over the next five years to solve the problem of overcrowding in national prisons, which exceed their capacity.
Mozambique currently has almost 160 prisons, including regional, provincial, and district prisons.
