Annex 1 of Male’ Prison closed down over inadequate conditions

Maldives Correctional Service has transferred all detainees out of Annex 1 of Male’ Prison and shut down the area for renovation after deeming its conditions inadequate for human inhabitation.

Commissioner of Prisons, Abdulla Munaz during his tour of Maldivian prisons and detention facilities, had declared the conditions of Annex 1 of Male’ Prison too poor for human inhabitation. He decided that the area required major renovation in order to continue using it as a detention facility.

He ordered Maldives Correctional Service to gradually transfer out the detainees to other facilities and to shut it down in order to carry out the necessary renovations.

The agency completed transferring out all the detainees and shut down the area on Monday, April 15.

Minister of Home Affairs, Sheikh Imran Abdulla had agreed with Munaz’s judgement, and ordered that all detention facilities which are in too poor a condition for human inhabitation must be renovated and made suitable for human inhabitation.

Maldives Correctional Service reports the reason for the decision to shut down Annex 1 of Male’ Prison included:

• The cells being designed like iron cages
• Overheating due to lack of ventilation
• Wear and tear to the toilets
• Increase in volume of detainees affected by skin conditions due to lack of proper ventilation

The agency reports Annex 1 of Male’ City will be re-opened once its renovated to an internationally acceptable standard.

Male’ Prison was opened as a remand center in 2003. It was originally used as a temporary stop for inmates of Maafushi Prison who are transported to Male’ City for various purposes, as a temporary stop for persons sentenced to banishment before they are transported to the islands where they will be serving their sentence, and to house inmates whose sentences are revised to house arrest but have no family to take them in.

Additional cells were built at Male’ Prison in 2006, after which the facility was used to detain inmates and detainees for longer periods of time.

Maldives Correctional Service reports Annex 1 of Male’ Prison, over the past four years, was used to house inmates suffering from old age, inmates suffering from chronic illnesses, and inmates who require special attention.