THE Media Network for Child Rights and
Development (MNCRD) has called on Government to build more juvenile correctional
facilities in the country to avoid mixing child offenders with adults. MNCRD executive director Henry Kabwe said government needs to build reformatory schools across the country so that incarcerated juveniles are not mixed with hard core criminals.
"It is necessary to build reformatory prisons in the country to avoid mixing juveniles with hard core criminals who have the potential of sodomising children," he said in an interview.
Mr Kabwe said on the other hand, lack of adequate child reformatory centres tends to affect the parent-child relationship because the correctional facilities are located far away from the communities.
Mr Kabwe pointed out the need for government and civil society organisations to partner and engage psycho-social counsellors to counsel inmate juveniles because most of them come from broken homes, while others are victims of abuse.
"The purpose of child correctional facilities is to help juveniles reform and not necessarily punish them and that is why those who are put in charge of these juveniles must not coerce them, he said.
Mr Kabwe said society must at all costs help child offenders become better people and not make them worse by discriminating against them.
A Human Rights Commission (HRC) 2011 Report on "Monitoring Visits to Child Correctional Facilities" highlights violation of human rights of inmates.
According to the report, some of the juvenile offenders are taken to prisons for adults and are forgotten there for months; hence some of them becoming hard core criminals.
Currently there are only three juvenile reformatory schools in Zambia namely Katombora in Livingstone, Nakambala Approved School in Mazabuka and Insakwe Probation Hostel for girls in Ndola. Katombora Reformatory is currently housing 106 male juveniles offenders, while Nakambala Approved School houses about 39 juveniles and Insakwe Probation Hostel has about 8 girls.
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