Zomba Central Prison installs CCTV to curb mobile money fraud

The Malawi Prison Service (MPS) has installed CCTV cameras at Zomba Central Prison in a bid to stop conmen running mobile money fraud from inside their cells.

MPS Public Relations Officer Steve Meke said on Tuesday the cameras add another layer of security and will help create a better environment for rehabilitating offenders.

"We expect to have a more conducive environment for offender rehabilitation, significantly reduce mobile money fraud-related cases and enhance the general security of the prison station, which is crucial for national development," he said.

Zomba Central is one of the country's major correctional facilities, Meke noted, and security at prisons is key to national development.

A scandal of scale

The move comes amid mounting concern over the scale of fraud orchestrated from behind bars. According to the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), inmates are responsible for up to 90 percent of reported mobile money scams in the country.

'Long overdue'

Security expert Dr Sherriff Kaisi described the installation as a significant and long-overdue development in Malawi's correctional security.

He said CCTV helps rehabilitation by cutting violence and intimidation, protecting vulnerable inmates and improving relations between staff and prisoners.

"In a nutshell, security and rehabilitation are not opposites. A well-monitored prison is a more humane and more reformative prison," he said.

Dr Kaisi pointed out that Zomba Central is one of the country's largest and most congested prisons, where security has long relied on human surveillance, hampered by low staff numbers, fatigue and blind spots.

'Cameras alone are not enough'

But he cautioned that cameras alone will not rehabilitate offenders. Their effectiveness, he said, depends on coverage, monitoring protocols, trained personnel and integration with wider security systems.

CCTV should therefore be part of a broader strategy, he said, noting that prison-based mobile money fraud typically requires illicit phones and SIM cards smuggled into the facility.

Those gadgets, he said, find their way in through unmonitored communication windows in cells and washrooms, or through corrupt staff and visitors.

Want a shorter version or social media posts for this one too?