Malawi Prison Service (MPS) has noticed that the issue of shortage of food in the country’s prisons is increasing, due to unstable supply by contacted supplies.

MPS spokesperson Chimwemwe Shaba said the contracted suppliers are now hesitating to supply foodstuffs since they want higher amount of money for the food.

“Suppliers now want us to add a few amount of money to the one we used to pay, they are complaining that the price of maize has gone up.” Shaba said.

Maize is selling at K22 000 per 50 kilograms bag, a 30 percent rise from K17 000 before the closure of State-produce trader Agriculture Development Marketing Corporation.

The food crisis has since resulted in prisoners going to bed on an empty stomach and they are only surviving on beans.

He said, “Some prisoners are receiving treatments and they are supposed to have their drugs everyday, but they are not taking their drugs as prescribed because of food which may result in them losing their lives.”

According to Shaba, MPS has also been seeking help from Admarc in supplying maize to ease the situation.

“We were told to send them information on how much the establishments require and submissions were made,” he said.

MPS records show that the country’s prison population has highly increased which is in between 11, 000 and 13, 000

The Northern Region has prisons in Chitipa, Karonga, Mzuzu, Nkhata Bay, Mzimba and Rumphi while in the Central Region they include Kasungu, Ntchisi, Lilongwe, Dedza and Nkhotakota.

Eastern Region has prisons in Ntcheu, Mangochi, Domasi, Zomba Central Prison, Mikuyu Prison and Mpyupyu.

In the South, there is Mwanza, Luwani, Chikwawa, Mulanje, Thyolo, Bvumbwe, Blantyre, Bangula, Nsanje and Makande.