via 90pct of prisoners die after release, MP – New Zimbabwe 01/07/2015
CLOSE to 90 percent of prisoners die soon after release due to a number of diseases which result from overcrowding, poor hygiene and malnutrition, an MDC-T legislator has revealed.
Speaking last week at a workshop held for legislators by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Jessie Majome, MDC-T MP for Harare West, castigated prison officials for not giving accurate information regarding the status of inmates.
She said the country’s prison situation is catastrophic with more than 90 percent of prisoners dying soon after their release.
Zimbabwe Prisons Legal Officer, Willie Risiro, said the number of prisoners countrywide had increased from 17,000 to 17,318, posing a very dire situation to the welfare of inmates.
“Prisoners are a vulnerable group which should be looked after by the government and other stakeholders to make sure they are rehabilitated well.
“Chikurubi has gone fore more than 10 years without tape water; inmates have also gone for three years without eating meat and such a lack of adequate resources has led to the spread of diseases,” said Risiro.
Zimbabwe Democracy Institution (ZDI) director Pedzisai Ruhanya said the situation at prisons was a reflection of a failing economy.
“It is a bad reflection in public institutions with no drugs in hospitals and food shortages everywhere,” said Ruhanya, adding that a regeneration of the entire political economy is needed in Zimbabwe.
Ruhanya said adequate social networks to cater for the aged, prisoners and the ailing is what the country is yearning for at the moment, otherwise without these, conditions in prisons would worsen.
He called for the use of prison farms to generate food, saying the institutions should not rehabilitate only the criminal aspect but also the social and livelihood element.
Ruhanya however, said people should not put the burden on the government alone as rich individuals, NGOs and the private sector should also assist through donations.
Jeremiah Bamu, a Zimbabwean Lawyer with an interest in Human Rights Litigation said, “Zimbabwe has witnessed an alarming increase of deaths not only in prisons but, also in police custody including inexcusable and random shooting of suspects by police even after the advent of the New Constitution which prohibits torture as an investigation technique.”
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Prisons Working Group (ZPWG) said prisoners have a right to adequate food and health and access to reasonable medical care.
Extreme hunger, inhumane filthy conditions, exposure to a variety of diseases and stripping people of their dignity are the norm in Zimbabwe’s prisons.
Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa last year refuted reports that 100 prisoners had died of hunger and disease.
Accurate figures relating to prison populations and deaths have not been made public.
COMMENTS
it is often considered a hallmark of progressive societies that they take care of their poor and disposed classes.
in zimbabwe, not even the strong and healthy are taken care off
and the poor prisoners are like lambs to slaughter
may the magistrates and judges read these terrible statistics, and reflect on the sentences they hand down
just in today’s news, a 12 months sentence was handed down to a radio journalist for running three broadcasts.
as we read here, that is a death sentence.
but where is the crime?
there is no crime.
only a law broken;
a law against free speech enacted to protect the criminal elite as they plunder the nation.
Every day, the news seems to get more depressing. Did we “white Africans” do such a bad job in trying to pass on what could be called World Values? Does the root problem lie in black Zimbabweans themselves?
It is always easy, perhaps instinctive to pass on your failings and blame them on others. And we see that, interminably. But – other post-colonial countries all seem to be doing far, far better than we are. Zimbos used to mock Zambia and Moz – but where would they now rather be?