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 terms of incarceration.Prison authorities began releasing hordes of inmates who are beneficiaries of a recent order of clemency extended to 2 500 convicts by President Robert Mugabe.

While the total number of beneficiaries of the presidential amnesty was first reported in the state media last week as 1 544, Zimbabwe Prison Service public relations officer, Elizabeth Banda, told journalists Friday the actual number of those to be freed was 2 513.

Among those granted amnesty were all women prisoners, inmates serving three-year terms who had completed a quarter of their sentence, as well as those in open prisons and life inmates who had served 20 or more years.

The amnesty excluded prisoners jailed for serious crimes including murder, rape and vehicle hijacking.

Officials say that while Zimbabwe’s prison have a holding capacity of 17 000 inmates, the current population is about 13 000.

Elated relatives said they had been living in fear of losing their loved ones to hunger and disease in Zimbabwe’s notorious jails.

Close to 1 000 prisoners are reported to have died in Zimbabwe’s jails between January and June this year.

The death rate is said to have since dropped from three per week to two.

“I cannot believe this. For the past two nights I have not had sleep trying to contain my happiness. I will never move near a jail again,” said a visibly elated Lovemore Bvuno (63), who was released from Harare Central prison after serving for 23 years.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1986 for murder.

Christopher Munyoro (64), who had served 25 years of a life sentence for the murder of his employer, said he felt born again.

Munyoro, whose entire family died of hunger and disease while he was in prison, said he was apologetic to both his victim and family.

Toendepi Mahaso, who volunteered to speak on behalf of a batch of 30 newly freed prisoners who were paraded for their final briefing by prison officers, said he was thankful to President Mugabe for the clemency.

“I say thank you very much to the President Robert Gabriel Mugabe,” he said, speaking in English. “I say thank you very much for the clemency.

“Sometimes justice has got to be tempered with mercy. Justice must have a human face and we have seen the human face of justice today by being released before our EDR (Expected Date of Release).

“We promise we are going to behave, to do very well out there. This is not the end of the world. Imprisonment is not the end of life, this is actually the beginning of a new life. Our old life has been destroyed and we are given a new lease of life.

“That is what we have received.”

The amnesty is an attempt by the current inclusive government to ease congestion in Zimbabwe’s 42 jails.

The jails are now viewed as death camps because of their poor sanitary conditions and a perennial shortage of food and medical drugs.

The country’s prisons did not survive the deadly cholera epidemic which broke out mid-last year killing 4 000 and living more than 80 000 hospitalised.

The epidemic was only contained after the intervention of humanitarian aid groups which brought medicine and other forms of assistance that helped suppress the continued spread of the dreaded disease.

Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) Deputy Commissioner Washington Chimboza said the service was unable to feed or clothe prisoners to the standards prescribed by law, adding that authorities had not been to observe the rights of prisoners over the last three years.

Chimboza, who was addressing a workshop on prisoner’s rights organised by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), said: “The Zimbabwe Prison Service has been unable to satisfy any of its mandatory obligations due to the fact that we were heavily incapacitated . . . we have now become an embarrassment to the criminal justice system.”

The ZPS official said prisons were required under the law to provide adequate food to inmates but were unable to do so due to budgetary constraints.

“Food commodities spelt out in the statutory instrument have not been able to be provided. Since 2006 we have experienced the worst and highest death rate in the history of the service. The most severe cases were experienced in 2008 where pellagra was rampant in our prisons,” said Chimboza.

Zimbabwe has 72 prisons carrying 12 971 prisoners, according to Chimboza.

The ZPS official said most of the prisoners walked semi-naked every day because ZPS cannot afford prison uniform for both inmates and staff. The water and food situation was “very poor” at most prisons, he said.

He said ZPS was using only two pots to cook for 2 000 inmates at Chikurubi:
“The little food procured has not been prepared under healthy conditions since all the cooking pots we had have seen their days. We have resorted to using drums sourced from the neighboring Larfage Cement.

“Even after we cook the food, we don’t have plates and other utensils. Prisoners have had to rely on lunch boxes and empty ice cream containers from relatives to use as plates,” said Chimboza.

He said the situation was equally dire for lowly paid staff whose working conditions had deteriorated.

He said lack of accommodation had resulted in prison officers renting houses or rooms from prisoners. – Simplicious Chirinda, ZimOnline.

HARARE, July 11 2009 – The Judge President, Rita Makarau, yesterday said it is the duty of  all judicial officers to protect the rights of prisoners.

Makarau was speaking at a meeting of human and prisoner’s rights  stakeholders organised by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) in Harare.

“It is the duty of all judicial officers to protect the rights of prisoners. They must be invited to these training workshops and trainings,” said Makarau.

“Prisoners do have rights and at the High Court we are guided by the provisions of the Supreme Court and that should also be applied down to the magistrate courts.”

Makarau’s colleague and fellow High Court judge, Charles Hungwe, also told the meeting that the business of protecting the rights of prisoners does not only lie with the prisons.

“The magistrates can make unscheduled visits to any prisons. In future it will be appropriate for the Provincial Magistrate to keep an eye on what is happening at the prisons rather than just (viewing) the magistrates’ courts. They must make more frequent visits to the prisons to see what should be done,” said Hungwe.

Hungwe said he had to personally intervene to try and save the situation at Mutare prison which had become overcrowded because of the huge number of people who were arrested in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.

“Mutare Prison was overcrowded. There was a sudden influx of prisoners due to the Chiadzwa diamond rush. The police were bussing three 75-seater buses full of prisoners to court but after the granting of bail the prisoners could not pay bail,” said Hungwe.

“The result was that at some stage food stocks ran out and prisoners had to sleep standing, I made the decision to release the accused on free bail,” said Hungwe.

Speaking at the same meeting an official from the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) painted a bleak picture of the prisons.

“The Zimbabwe Prison Service has been unable to satisfy any of its mandatory obligations due to the fact that we were heavily incapacitated. We have now become an embarrassment to the criminal justice system,” said Washington Chimboza, the Deputy Commissioner of Prisons.

According to the Prisons General Regulations of 1996 the Zimbabwe Prison Services should provide adequate food to inmates but has been failing to do so.

“Food commodities spelt out in the statutory instrument have not been provided. Since 2006 we have experienced the worst and highest death rate in the history of the service. The most severe cases were experienced in 2008 when pellagra was rampant in our prisons,” said Chimboza.

“Malnutrition acted as a catalyst to most deaths given that where cases of opportunistic infections were evident, it was impossible to commence medication since there was no food in the country in general and particularly in the prisons.”

The Prison Service requires 500 tonnes of maize-meal a month to feed a prison population of 13 000 inmates. The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) is supposed to supply ZPS with these requirements but has not been able to do so.

ZPS administers a total of 46 prisons and 26 satellite prisons throughout the country. These prisons include the old type built at the turn of the last century, such as the Harare Central Prison, Masvingo Remand Prison and modern structures built after independence such as Kadoma, Mutare Farm, Chipinge and Khami Maximum Prisons. While the official holding capacity is 17 000, Deputy Chimboza said that the current prison population stands at around 12 971, comprising 10 299 convicted and 2 672 remand prisoners.

The female population stands at 694.

“Our inability to honour such a mandatory obligation has caused untold suffering to the inmate population in our custody,” said Chimboza.

“The little food procured has not been prepared under healthy conditions since all the cooking pots we had have seen their days. Of the 26 pots at Chikurubi Maximum none is working and this has led to the creation of a temporary kitchen where cast iron pots are in use.”

“We have resorted to using drums sourced from neighbouring Lafarge Cement.”

He added that they had not been able to transport inmates to court for either remand or trial to the extend of requesting that the canteen at Marondera Prison be converted into a court house for further remand.

“The security vehicles, the only four Mercedes Benz Atego trucks have been parked since August 2008 because we could not afford to repair and service them,” said Chimboza.

Chimboza said the water situation has been equally dire.

“The water situation in our prisons is very poor. Chikurubi Prison Complex has gone for five years without ZINWA providing any water,” said Chimboza.

“This shortage has seen the birth of water borne diseases due to inadequate cleanliness.”

The government recently passed a resolution allowing relatives of inmates to provide clothing and other necessities to prisoners. Chimboza said the community will have to come on board to safe the situation.

“Inmates do not lose their right to health care by virtue of being in custody,” said Chimboza.

- www.TheZimbabweTimes.com

Prisoners in some of Zimbabwe’s overcrowded jails have to stay naked because of a shortage of uniforms that highlights deteriorating conditions in prisons as the cash-strapped government struggles for resources to maintain the institutions, independent news provider ZimOnline has learnt.

Prison officials and some former inmates say the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) is unable to provide adequate uniforms for the ever-increasing number of inmates, resulting in prisoners having to share the available uniforms.

Inmates on remand and who will be attending court are the first priority to get uniforms, while those not going to court have to stay naked or use prison blankets to cover themselves, a senior official at Harare central prison said.

Prisoners in Zimbabwe are banned from wearing their own clothes and must wear prison-issued uniforms.

The prison official, who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to disclose such information to the press, said: “There is a serious shortage of uniforms for prisoners that they have to share.

“Priority for uniforms is being given to suspects in remand prison who would be attending court. Some of the prisoners have to stay naked, but it’s kind of rotational.”

A former prisoner at the notorious Chikurubi prison, just outside Harare, Elton Mandiro, said it is “most humiliating” when he and other inmates have to hang around the prison naked because there are no uniforms.

Mandiro, who was released from Chikurubi last month, said: “We were told to remove our uniforms and hand them over so that the guys going to court appearances could wear them. We would stay naked or sometimes we would wrap those torn prison blankets, but then again they are not enough.”

ZPS commissioner Paradzai Zimondi was not available for comment on the matter, while Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, under whose portfolio prisons fall, said he was not aware of the uniforms shortage and promised to investigate the claims that inmates sometimes had to stay naked.

Chinamasa said the government has tried to ensure conditions in jails meet international standards, but admitted it has in some cases failed to do this because of lack of money.

He said: “That’s [prisoners staying naked] news to me. We try to provide dignified conditions for our prisoners according to international requirements. To a large extent we have managed, although in some cases funding affects us.”

The uniforms shortage is only one of several problems affecting the poorly funded state jails. There is also serious overcrowding with the more than 40 prisons holding more than 22 000 inmates, which is way above their designed carrying capacity of 16 000 prisoners.

Overcrowding plus a shortage of medical drugs in prison hospitals has seen the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis in prisons.

Food is also in short supply with numerous reports in the past of inmates, for example at Chikurubi prison, going for months without running water or spending weeks on a diet of dirty cabbage soup and maize-meal porridge.

A poor diet has resulted in a higher incidence of malnutrition-related illnesses among prisoners.

In a confidential report to President Robert Mugabe last February, Zimondi said conditions in the country’s prisons were so bad, with prisoners dying regularly, that every inmate was virtually on death row.

Most of those dying in prison or just after being released were dying of treatable diseases, the country’s chief jailer said in the report.

Describing the mortality rate in prisons as a “cause for concern”, Zimondi said at one of the country’s jails, which he did not name in the report, 127 prisoners had died over a period of 12 months.

The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) in 2004 described conditions in prisons as hazardous and said the country’s jails were virtual death traps. The LSZ, the representative body for the legal profession in Zimbabwe, was speaking after touring prisons.