Prison commander calls on CS commissioner to address deteriorating facilities

 A PRISON commander has criticised the poor facilities and working conditions in Correctional Services (CS) institutions in the country.

And Baisu jail commander Supt Pindi Kaugla said funds allocated to maintain these prison facilities were spent in other areas by department heads.

He said warders were living in dilapidated quarters while prisoners were poorly fed and lived in run-down cells.

He called on CS Commissioner Martin Balthazar and deputy David Melenge who are conducting conferences around the country and constantly travelling abroad to channel some of the money spent to improve some of the jail facilities.

“We are handling human lives, not animals and the government must understand that poor back-up and funding of CS results in mass breakouts.”

“Money budgeted for the improvement of jail facilities are misused and we pretend that everything is fine.

“And when something surprising happens, we talk about errors, facilities and development which should have 

been talked about earlier,” he said.

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill had imposed a moratorium on overseas travel for government ministers, heads of departments, government agencies, statutory bodies and provincial administrators.

Kaugla said the prime minister’s decision was in the best interest of the people as money budgeted for essential goods and services were abused and nothing tangible have been achieved over the years.