SODOMY CASES WORRY PRISCCA

By ADRIAN MWANZA

THE Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCCA) has bemoaned the number of sodomy cases in Zambian prisons which has contributed to HIV cases.

PRISCCA Executive Director Dr. Godfrey Malembeka said that his organization was working with stakeholders like PEPFAR to stop the growing trend of homosexuality.

Dr. Malembeka said that the HIV prevalent rate had remained stagnant at 27.4 and that this was partly due to the cases of Sodomy.

He said that PEPFAR was working tirelessly to ensure that there were no circumstantial cases of sex in prisons.

“We have gone flat out in trying to ensure that prisoners are sensitized on the dangers of Homosexuality in prisons, because it is the biggest contributor of HIV,” he said.

He said that cases had drastically reduced after the interventions with PEPFAR and numbers had gone down.

He however called on the government to consider increasing the funding to Zambia Correction Service (ZCS) because the prisons were highly congested.

He said currently the prisons had over 26,000 individuals and had the capacity of 10,000 which was above the normal.

He said that the issue was bad because the prisoners were not being given the much-needed support by the government.

“I want to urge the government to ensure that it concentrates on improving the livelihoods of the prisoners,” he said.