50 years later, the penitentiary administration still in the ditch

The penitentiary administration’s primary official does not make a mystery of the sad balance of Madagascar’s prison. “We are still very far below the strict necessary whether in terms of detainee surveillance or in terms of available space”, he admitted. Madagascar has one available warden for 40 detainees when world standards require a warden for 5 detainees. Rakotomanga Rakotonirina happens to unveil simply alarming technical specifications. “The individual cell regime means one cell for one convict, the mass cell regime means for eight individuals; here, a cell can come up to contain some 120 detainees at a time”. 

The conditions of detention are not as so hard all the way. The administration has already completed a move forward by building some women only jails. Minor detainees are no more mixed up with the adults. VIP locations have even been erected for exeptional figures, foreigners and political prisoners. With not so much proximity, sanity and less risk of violence, it appears as the prisoners’ paradise. 

Simple common prisoners are entitled to the hell’s Grand Hall. A leader is managing the herd’s life in order to maintain a shadow of order among 100 criminals. A particular cliché constantly appears in jail stories: everybody must lie down in the same direction. At the cell leader’s signal, prisoners stacked as much as possible are turning around.  

Jail overpopulation, illustrated by cells welcoming two or even three times more detainees than supposed to, is not always as so catastrophic. According to the penitentiary administration’s chief, the 2m² per detainee standard is respected even if it does not mean easy detention conditions for so much. The overpopulation especially concerns big city prisons. Madagascar has 80 jails, and 17 000 convicts. 

Rakotomanga Rakotonirina is estimating that judicial solutions have to be engaged in order to lighten the prisons’ burden. He is definitely hinting the acceleration of judicial procedures against supposed temporary suspects, on the one hand, and the institution of good behaviour based conditional release for those who have served a part of their sentence and who match the criteria. 

In order to improve conditions of detention, the administration is planning to define a new penitentiary card and to ease concentrations in the Antananarivo and Toamasina urban districts with respectively 08 and additional jails. The great reform meant to begin in 2008 will only be started in 2010. It is including the construction of new jails complying with global standards. 

As symbols of renewal and pride for the penitentiary administration, penal camps will also be in the center of the reform. The first experiences proved satisfying. Prisoners working outdoors are disciplined and prepared to the reinstatement in social life at their release. In these camps, convicts are practicing breeding and agriculture to contribute themselves to their own jail’s food self-sufficiency.