Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Tuesday warned that the country’s prisons must not become “schools where the inmates learn to perfect forms of crime, or places where they are radicalised to commit acts of terrorism”.
Speaking at a Maputo ceremony where senior prison staff were promoted, Chapo also stressed the need to step up security on the prisons “so that they do not become places where electronic means are used to commit fraud, or prepare kidnappings”. He was referring to the notorious practice of smuggling cell phones into prisons. Even notorious murderers like the late Momade Assife Abdul Satar (known as “Nini”), jailed for his part in the murder in 2000 of the country’s top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, neve had any difficulty in obtaining cell phones.
Chapo also demanded elimination of the payment of bribes “in exchange for favourable opinions which culminate in the release of inmates”.
Among the modernising procedures that Chapo wanted to implement in the prisons is the wearing of electronic bracelets to control the movement of prisoners.
He urged the prison officers to encourage agricultural, livestock and artisanal production “as part of the social recovery of the inmates, avoiding idleness. They should capitalise on the large amount of arable land available around many of the prisons “and take advantage of the labour force for which you are responsible. Inmates should learn some skill which should contribute to the production of the food that they consume”.
The prison officers should also work for the application of penalties that are alternatives to imprisonment, while persuading communities that this is not the same thing as impunity, but rather “a way of giving a new opportunity to the inmates”, particularly those who have committed minor offences.
A further objective of the government, said Chapo, was the building of new prisons to improve conditions and ease overcrowding.
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