Seychelles Prison Service to take part in SADC long-term prisons strategic planning |11 November 2020
The Seychelles Prison Service will be taking part with other corrections and prison services from the Southern African Development Community to finalise plans for a long-term corrections/prisons strategic plan for the SADC community.
Convened by the SADC secretariat, the virtual meeting to be held on November 24, 2020 will provide all corrections/prison services within the SADC community an opportunity to update and validate information that will be used to finalise the community’s long-term strategic plan, which will then be presented to the SADC Statutory Structures in 2021.
The goal for all prison/correction services within SADC and wider afield within the African Union is to improve operating standards and conditions.
Further, the plan aims to address in part safety and security in prisons, rehabilitation and successful reintegration of prisoners to society, special needs within the prison population, and health services within prisons, the recruitment, training and wellbeing of prison officers, women’s network of prison officers in SADC.
The following are prison populations for each jurisdiction: Angola 22,907 (2016), Botswana 4,343 (2017), Comoros 225 (2018), Democratic Republic of Congo 1,240 (2014), The Kingdom of Eswatini 3,453 (2018), The Kingdom of Lesotho 2,073 (2014). Madagascar 24,928 (2018), Malawi 13,929 (2018), Mauritius 2,447 (2018), Mozambique 18,185 (2017), Namibia 7,400 (2017), South Africa 164,129 (2018), United Republic of Tanzania 34,404 (2015), Zambia 25,000 (2017), Zimbabwe 19,521 (2017), and Seychelles at 382 (2018).
Seychelles has a population of 318 as of November 9, 2020 and this includes those on remand.
The Seychelles Prison Service has remained engaged with SADC throughout this process by being present at several recent meetings and has actively contributed to the planning of the long-term strategic plans.
For its own strategic plan, the Seychelles Prison Service continues to press to improve upon conditions within inmate cell blocks, dignity of care, while addressing standards across all areas of prison operations and services among a few of the areas that continue to be pursued.
At this meeting the Seychelles Prison Service will be represented and led by Samir Ghislain, deputy superintendent of prisons; Elsa Nourrice, principal probation officer and head of rehabilitation and psychosocial support; chief inspector Sam Dodin, head of supply and logistics and sergeant Monique Monthy, prison nurse and focal point for contagious disease and mitigation.
Press release from the Seychelles Prison Service