Malawi prisons overcrowded by over 3 thousand inmates

The Malawi Prison Service (MPS) says the country’s prisons are currently holding about 12,000 inmates against a recommended capacity of 9,000.

This now means facilities are overstretched by over 3,000 prisoners.

To address the congestion, MPS spokesperson Steve Meke says the Service is intensifying rehabilitation programmes to equip inmates with vocational and life skills they can use after serving their sentences.

However, Executive Director of the,Centre for Human Rights, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) Victor Mhango, says prison overcrowding leads to a scramble for food and compromises the living environment for inmates.

Malawi’s prisons face severe challenges, most notably extreme overcrowding where facilities hold nearly double or triple their intended capacity.

This congestion drives critical shortages in food, poor sanitation, inadequate healthcare, and delayed justice for remand inmates.

More than 1,000 murder suspects languish on remand without trial because they cannot afford legal counsel or bail.

Slow prosecution timelines disproportionately trap the impoverished inside the system.