—Believes state should not look after them as punishment for their crimes
Mohloai Mpesi
IN a shocking statement, Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) legislator for Matsieng constituency, Moshe Makotoko, says he wishes all prisoners could just die as punishment for their transgressions and to save the State from looking after them.
Mr Makotoko said in the National Assembly prisoners should be left to die as their “prize” for committing crimes. He sees the government’s spending on the healthcare of incarcerated individuals as an unnecessary burden on the public purse.
He says it “defies logic” for the government to allocate resources towards ensuring the good health of inmates who should instead be left to suffer in lieu of their transgressions.
Mr Makotoko made the shocking remarks during a meeting of the Parliamentary Pandemics Committee this week, when officials from the Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS) were briefing lawmakers on the status of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in the country’s prisons currently holding 2600 inmates.
The committee, chaired by Paul Masiu of the AREKA-LPC Alliance, also included other RFP legislators such as Lebohang Phohleli and Lekhotsa Mafatle of Rothe and Khubetsoana constituencies respectively.
The LCS was represented by two senior officials – Senior Assistant Commissioner (SAC) Phoka Scout from the prison service’s department of health and its HIV/AIDS Coordinator, Nkepile Thokoa Thabane. They explained the challenges they faced in curbing the spread of these diseases, including a lack of resources and equipment. They relied heavily on support from the Ministry of Health to provide medication and treatment, the officers said.
They said the annual budget of M150,000 for their health department was insufficient, although it had been increased to M400,000 for medications in this new financial year.
“We run out of medication so much that we have to knock at the doors of hospitals and clinics asking for assistance,” Mr Scout said.
However, a seemingly irritated Mr Makotoko took issue with the LCS officers’ concerns, questioning their efforts to provide better living conditions for “criminals who deliberately engaged in frivolous and nefarious criminal activities to end up in prison.”
The MP went on to say he wished many prisoners would “simply die”.
“I wanted to go to prison when I was still growing up because I heard there was plenty of food in there, but I could not be arrested although I really wanted to go to prison,” Mr Makotoko said.
“Now, you guys are working hard to improve the living conditions for convicted criminals, even though they committed crimes….. How many people die in prison?
“I wish many of them would just die. Why should we and the government burden ourselves with people who unnecessarily commit criminal activities?”
Mr Makotoko’s seemingly callous comments did not seem to sit well with members of the committee who sat visibly baffled.
The LCS officials felt it imprudent for Mr Makotoko to disregard the lives and wellbeing of incarcerated individuals so blatantly. They said prisoners were entitled to proper healthcare and humane treatment under international law.
Mr Scout, a veteran of 26 years in correctional services, said it was particularly wrong to wish death on prisoners.
He explained to Mr Makotoko that prisoners should not be punished further while incarcerated, as “they have already been sentenced by the courts for their crimes”. Keeping them away from society and denying them freedom was ample punishment in itself. There was no need to inflict additional suffering.
The expectation, he said, was that prisoners would receive rehabilitation and eventually return to their communities.
” It would be wrong to deny them food and medication when they are sick and services that they need,” he said emphatically.
About 541 officers of the 2600 inmates were HIV positive, a significant threat due to the risk of more infections intra prison.
The LCS was however working with partner organizations like Jhpiego, Phelisanang Bophelong HIV Network, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) to keep the HIV/Aids problem in prisons under check.
However, the US’s decision to cut aid funding to NGOs worldwide could impact their work.
TB was particularly a problem in the prison environment as the infectious disease “spread easily in an enclosed prison environment”, Mr Scout said.
He shared that only the Maseru and Mohale’s Hoek prisons had dedicated spaces to isolate and treat inmates with infectious diseases like TB. Other facilities housed infected individuals together in shared cells.
To overcome some of these challenges, the Ministry of Health was providing critical support, including treatment guidelines, training, and medical supplies and equipment to the LCS, Mr Scout said. He called for expanded capacity to properly isolate and care for prisoners with communicable diseases across the country’s correctional system.
The LCS’s HIV/AIDS Coordinator, Ms Thabane, highlighted the high HIV infection rates among male prisoners even though females were also impacted.
“Prisoners in general are very vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS,” she said.
Apart from HIV/AIDS other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were rampant in correctional facilities.
“Access to condoms has been encouraged, as there are activities happening in prisons that lead to STI transmission,” she said.
Mr Scout, echoing Ms Thabane’s comments, acknowledged that sexual activity among inmates had long been an issue in prisons.
“Condoms were made available because we recognized people were dying of HIV/AIDS related to this problem,” he said.
