PERCEPTIONS OF PRISONERS ON FOOD SECURITY IN MALAWI

PRISONS

By Hastings B. Moloko [Dip. Eng., BSc (Tech. Ed.), MSc. (FIT), MBA,

AIWSc.]

Introduction

• The objective of this study was to find out the perception of prisoners in Malawi on the food security situation in Malawi Prisons.

• In order to address this objective, 1000 prisoners were randomly selected from all prisons in Malawi and interviewed using a structured questionnaire.

Introduction cont.

• The sample size was determined using Kothari, 2004 as:

• • where n = sample size, z = 1.96 = z-value

yielding 95% confidence level, p = proportion of the population of interest, q = 1 – p, N = 12,598 = the population of interest, e = 5% = absolute error in estimating p.

Methodology

• The Prisoner Food Insecurity Access Scale (PFIAS) questionnaire was used as a tool for collecting information from prisoners.

• The PFIAS was a modification of the US Household Food Security Survey Module (US HFSSM).

• Following (Kaizer & Melgar-Quinonez, 2003) the questions in the PFIAS were reviewed using a group of key informants from Lilongwe prisons.

Methodology cont.

• The questionnaire was then refined using a smaller group of respondents from Zomba-Central prison.

• The refined questionnaire was then pre-tested at Zomba-Central prison.

• The PFIAS was then used to collect data from 1000 inmates from across all prisons in the country.

Methodology cont.

• The PFIAS consisted of two types of related questions. • The first question type was an occurrence question. • The occurrence questions asked whether a specific

condition associated with the experience of food insecurity ever occurred during the previous four weeks (Kaiser et al.., 2002).

• Each occurrence question was followed by a frequency-of-occurrence question, which asked how often a reported condition occurred during the previous four weeks.

Methodology cont.

• Each occurrence question consisted of the stem (time frame for recall), the body of the question which referred to a specific perception or experience, and two response options (0 = no, 1= yes) (Perez-Escamilla et al.., 2004).

• There was also a “skip code” next to each “no” response option.

• This code was meant to instruct the enumerator to skip the related frequency-of-occurrence follow-up question whenever the respondent answered “no” to an occurrence question.

Methodology cont.

• To each frequency-of-occurrence question, there were three response options representing a range of frequencies, namely, 1 = rarely, 2 = sometimes, and 3 = often (Melgar-Quinonez et al.., 2006).

• The PFIAS asked for prisoners’ perceptions/ experiences in the following food security conditions:

Methodology cont.

• Anxiety and worry over food• Not being able to eat one’s preferred food• Eating a limited variety of foods• Eating food that one did not want• Eating a smaller meal than one needed• Eating fewer meals in a day• Not eating any food at all• Going to sleep at night hungry

Methodology cont.

• Going a whole day and night without eating• Augmenting food intake through food from

home/relatives• Acquiring food through shameful means, eg,

borrowing, begging or stealing

Results and Discussion:Demographics and Education

• All respondents were male as no female prisoners were allowed out of confinement.

• The mean prisoner age was 27 years, the youngest and oldest being 14 and 84 years old respectively.

• 3.8% of the prisoners had no education at all while 67.2% had various levels of primary school education.

• 16.2% had gone up to junior secondary school classes while 12.1% had attempted senior secondary school classes.

• 0.5% had college certificate level education while 0.2% had college diploma level education.

Results and Discussion:Distance to Home

• 74% of the prisoners came from far-away places and did not have any relatives near the prison.

• 81% of prisoners did not receive any meals from outside prison.

• This seems to suggest that receiving outside meals was dependant on how far away the prisoner’s home or relatives were from the prison.

Results and Discussion:Social Status

• 69.5% of the prisoners considered themselves poor.

• It is striking that this percentage closely resembled that in prisoner educational levels where it was seen that 71% of prisoners had only up to primary level education.

Results and Discussion:Food Sufficiency

• Asked whether they perceived themselves to be food sufficient after combining food received from prison with that received from relatives, 69% of the prisoners said that they did not perceive themselves to be food sufficient.

Results and Discussion:Anxiety Over Food

• 61.3% of the prisoners in the country were anxious and worried that they would not have enough food to eat.

• 24.0% of these were rarely anxious, 10.45% were sometimes anxious, while 26.9% were often anxious.

• All prisoners (100.0%) in the country indicated that the institutional food that they received was of insufficient quality.

Results and Discussion:Eating Un-preferred Food

• 82.2% of the prisoners reported not being able to eat the kinds of foods that they preferred.

• 12.8% ate un-preferred food rarely, 15.1% ate it sometimes, while 54.2% ate un-preferred food often.

Results and Discussion:Eating a Limited Variety of Foods

• Nationally, 80.9% of the prisoners ate a limited variety of foods because there was nothing else to eat.

• 9.3% ate a limited variety rarely, 12.0% ate it sometimes, and 59.6% ate it often.

Results and Discussion:Eating Un-wanted Food

• 53.8% of the prisoners in the country ate some foods that they did not really want to eat.

• 12.0% of these ate the un-wanted food rarely, 9.9% sometimes, while 31.9% ate it often.

Results and Discussion:Eating a Smaller Meal

• Nationally, 76.1% of the prisoners ate a smaller meal than they felt they needed.

• 12.8% of these ate a smaller meal rarely, 8.9% ate it sometimes, while 54.4% ate it often.

Results and Discussion:Eating Fewer Meals/Day

• 77.8% of prisoners in the country ate fewer meals in a day.

• In many cases prisoners reported eating one meal per day.

• 9.6% of these ate fewer meals rarely, 10.4% sometimes and 57.8% often.

Results and Discussion:No Food at All

• Nationally, 9.7% of the prisoners said that there were times when there was no food of any kind to eat at their prison.

• 6.9% of these had no food at all rarely, 1.8% sometimes, and 1.0% often.

Results and Discussion:Sleeping at Night Hungry

• 21.0% of the prisoners in the country had gone to sleep at night hungry, at times.

• 12.5% of these had had this experience rarely, 6.0% had it sometimes and 2.5% had it often.

Results and Discussion:Whole Day and Night Without Eating

• 11.7% of the prisoners in the country had, at some point, gone a whole day and night without eating.

• 8.2% of these had had this experience rarely, 2.8 % had had it sometimes, while 0.7% had had it often.

Results and Discussion:Augmenting Food Intake

• 42.4% of the prisoners in the country had augmented food intake through outside supply.

• 23.5% had done so rarely, 11.6 % sometimes, and 7.3% often.

Results and Discussion:Resorting to Shameful Means

• 61.8% of the prisoners in the country had resorted to shameful means of acquiring food, eg, borrowing, begging or stealing from other inmates or people.

• Of these, 25.9% had done this rarely, 11.9% had done it sometimes, while 24.1% had done it often.

Results and Discussion:Food Security Prevalence

• 89.1% of the prisoners in the country perceive themselves to be severely food insecure.

• 4.9% moderately food insecure.• 1.1% mildly food insecure, and • 5.0% food secure.

Conclusion and Recommendations

• 99.3% of the prisoners have up to Form 4 level of education.

• This suggests that in Malawi, criminality is concentrated among the youth and it reduces as education levels increase.

• It is, therefore, recommended that education should be made compulsory for the youth, at least for the first twelve years of the education system.

Conclusion and Recommendations

• Most prisoners came from places far-away from their prison, did not have any relatives near the prison and did not receive any meals from outside prison.

• This suggests that the long distances between prison and home discourage family members from visiting and providing meals to prisoners.

• It is recommended that many more prisons should be built so that prisoners, especially those that commit minor offences, should be incarcerated closer home.

VOTE OF THANKS

• Thank you all for listening.

• God bless you.