From VOA News, 1 February
Peta Thornycroft

Harare - Police in Zimbabwe are warning they do not have enough money to feed people in holding cells around the country. The whole justice system in Zimbabwe is threatened by lack of adequate resources. Although fewer people are being arrested now than in previous years, the police say they do not have enough money to feed those held in custody at police stations. Senior Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said if arrested people are not given food by relatives or from sympathetic policemen paying for food out of their own pockets, detainees are going hungry. He said policemen, like many other civil servants, are only earning about $150 a month. Bvudzijena said the worst affected among those people arrested and held in rural police districts. He said some charitable organizations helped feed suspects in urban areas like Harare, but it is never enough. The assistant commissioner said the police force received less than 10 percent of the funds it requested in the last budget. He said many police vehicles no longer work and the police infrastructure is disintegrating fast.

Insiders in the Department of Justice say it is also affected with a shortage of prosecutors, magistrates, and other staff servicing the courts. This is leading to longer stays in jail for prisoners awaiting trial. Former Commercial Farmers Union president Trevor Gifford and a colleague were supposed to appear in court Friday in the eastern city Mutare. But there was no staff to process them and they were held in custody over the weekend. They were arrested on contempt of court charges because, their lawyers say, they tried to deliver a High Court order to a presiding magistrate. Other Zimbabwe government ministries are also short of cash. Education minister David Coltart said Sunday his allocation is $1 per child at school per month. He said this is a shocking statistic affecting three million school children. Finance Minister Tendai Biti is raising about $90 million a month to run Zimbabwe and there are few indications revenue is going to increase.

From The Zimbabwean - 20 January 2010
HARARE -Prisons commissioner Paradzayi Zimondi (Pictured) has transformed the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) into a quasi-military corps, running the correctional service as his personal fiefdom, disgruntled prison officers told The Zimbabwean this week..
They recounted how Zimondi had transmogrified the prison service from its duty to provide correctional services into [...]

By SARAH NCUBE http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=4158
Published: November 9, 2009
GWERU- Members of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in the
Midlands Province say the Zimbabwe justice system does not respect people’s
liberties.
Brian Dube, one of the members of ZLHR and also the National Association of
Non Governmental Organisations (NANGO) Midlands chairperson The Zimbabwe
Telegraph that justice [...]

From The Zimbabwean, 12 October 09
Written by Taurai Bande
HARARE-A semi-autonomous group of the Roman Catholic Church, Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SSVP), recently bank rolled Zimbabwe’s prison farm projects to the tune of US$6 000.
The society made up of voluntary members of the church, mobilized resources to alleviate suffering among prisoners, following revelations by [...]

From The Zimbabwean
Written by TAKESURE BIZURE
Monday, 14 September 2009 00:00
HARARE - Prison inmates released through a presidential amnesty on
Friday say they are lucky to survive their stay in the country’s jails,
described by Amnesty International in July this year as deplorable and unfit
for humans. Close to 1,000 prisoners are said to [...]

From The Zimbabwe Times - 12th September 2009
A television documentary produced with hidden cameras in Beitbridge  in March 2009 featured these emaciated prisoners.
By Our Correspondent
HARARE – There were scenes of jubilation and celebration at Harare Central Prison on Friday as relatives reunited with their loved ones as they were released  freed from prison after serving [...]

From  www.Zimnetradio.com
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 8th September, 2009
ZIMBABWE – HARARE – The spotlight was on Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, as 1500 prisoners were freed on a presidential amnesty decree.
The released prisoners said they were confined in overcrowded cells, measuring 9m by 4m. Typically speaking there are [...]

Editorial from The Zimbabwean, 4 Sept 2009
The decision by President Robert Mugabe last week to grant
amnesty to more than 1 500 prisoners in order to ease congestion in jails more than anything else demonstrates all that is wrong with Zimbabwe’s leader.
His total failure to appreciate the urgency of the disaster that is Zimbabwe today,  is [...]

From The Zimbabwe Times - By Owen Chikari, 7th September 2009

MASVINGO – At least 10 prison officers based at Mutimurefu Prison on the outskirts of Masvingo city are battling for their lives at Masvingo General Hospital after they were allegedly tortured by the military police for indiscipline.
The Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs [...]

From The Zimbabwean - 2nd September 2009
HARARE-With nowhere else to run and few people left to blame, President Robert Mugabe has conceded that the country’s prison system has collapsed while inmates continue to succumb to treatable diseases.
So serious is the situation that President Mugabe was forced to make an order that has been cited as [...]