INMATES GET UNIFORMS
THE Zambia Correctional Service (ZCS) has procured 8, 000 meters of material for inmates’ uniforms and 5,300 blankets .
ZCS Commissioner General Percy Chato said the procurement of material was completed last year and that the consignment is expected to be delivered next month.
Mr Chato said this when he toured Chitwi correctional facility in Luanshya on Wednesday.
The command, he said, was alive to the challenges that inmates were facing including insufficient uniforms and beddings. He said uniforms for correctional officers had also been procured and so far the command had distributed boots to all officers.
“For staff uniforms, we are in the process of receiving but pairs of shoes were bought for all rank and file officers .We are in the process of distributing berets, belts and shoulder title for us to rebrand the service from prison to correctional service,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Chato said the service has plans to delink Chitwi correctional facility from the US$ 1.4 million World Bank funded irrigation scheme.
Mr Chato explained that the farm project whose works were still underway would be more successful if it stood as a satellite stand-alone project.
He said the service would expand land under irrigation and make it sustaining in agriculture production.
And Luanshya correctional facility officer-in-charge Frank Hachoombwa said the facility had cultivated 50 hectares of maize and expected a yield of 3,500 by 50 kg bags of maize.