Improved funding to Legal Aid Board can help decongest prisons

FORMER Zambia Correctional Service (ZCS) commissioner general Percy Chato says courts needs to consider non-custodial sentences for small offences in order to reduce congestion and prevent the spread of Covid-19 in correctional facilities. Chato argues that attempting to fight a pandemic which thrives on social distance failure would be an exercise in futility, unless efforts are made to decongest prisons. CHATO: “Congestion has been a source of concern for quite some time and it is a hindrance as far as the provision of adequate health services is concerned. Now we have a disease whose emphasis is on social distancing, but I think with the congestion that will provide a very big hindrance. So we call for effectiveness to address this…...