The data was presented, this Monday, by the head of public contracting at the Ministry of the Interior, Nilson Chaves, one of the speakers at the Seminar on "Criminal Procedural Law: Alternative Measures to Prison and Rehabilitation", and added that prison authorities spend this value for each prisoner, whereas five years ago between 20 dollars and 30 dollars were spent.
"When I was in the penitentiary system, about five years ago, this expense was between 20 dollars and 30 dollars, but with the monetary variation nowadays it must, without a doubt, be in those values", he stressed.
Source of prison services, he told Lusa that this cost includes food, medical and medication assistance, clothing, transport and water, as many of the establishments do not have mains water.
The country's penal population is made up of 24,068 prisoners, 23,479 men and 589 women, of which 11,664 are in pre-trial detention and 12,404 are convicted.
With a total of 43 prisons across the country and an installed capacity of 22,554 places, there is an overcrowding of 1514 prisoners, corresponding to 2 percent of the total penal population.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, the national director of Alternative Sentences, Maneco Vunge, said that the current Criminal Procedure Code (CPP), of 2020, created house arrest, provision of services to the community and prison on weekends as alternative sentences to reduce overcrowding.
According to the official, the penitentiary service monitors prisoners sentenced to house arrest in the provinces of Luanda, Malanje and Bengo, but faces "huge problems", such as the lack of staff and transport for the mobility of technicians allocated to this service, among others.
Maneco Vunge highlighted that alternative sentences are recent and the courts still make little use of them, exemplifying that since the approval of the current CPP, only this year they had a measure to provide work in favor of the community, and, in 2023, a case in prison over the weekend.
"A set of measures is being tested by the judicial bodies, which aim to expand this situation, I think we are on the right path", he noted.
Regarding electronic bracelets, he said that the Ministry of Interior submitted a proposal to the National Assembly for their approval.
