Rhoderick
03-04-2006, 12:53
Please read the following article and let me know what you feel aboiut this, it is quite long.
"Prisoners in Zimbabwean jails go naked
Mon 3 April 2006
HARARE - 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, ZimOnline has learnt.
Prison officials and some former inmates told ZimOnline that the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) was 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 would 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.
PRISONERS in Zimbabwean jails are being forced to stay naked because of a shortage of 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 Maximum Prison, just outside Harare, Elton Mandiro, said it was "most humiliating" when he and other inmates had to hang around the prison naked because there were 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 met international standards but admitted it had 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.
The government is hard pressed for resources as it grapples an acute food shortage affecting a quarter of the 12 million Zimbabweans and a severe economic crisis that has spawned shortages of fuel, electricity, essential medical drugs among other key commodities. - ZimOnline"
"Prisoners in Zimbabwean jails go naked
Mon 3 April 2006
HARARE - 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, ZimOnline has learnt.
Prison officials and some former inmates told ZimOnline that the Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) was 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 would 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.
PRISONERS in Zimbabwean jails are being forced to stay naked because of a shortage of 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 Maximum Prison, just outside Harare, Elton Mandiro, said it was "most humiliating" when he and other inmates had to hang around the prison naked because there were 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 met international standards but admitted it had 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.
The government is hard pressed for resources as it grapples an acute food shortage affecting a quarter of the 12 million Zimbabweans and a severe economic crisis that has spawned shortages of fuel, electricity, essential medical drugs among other key commodities. - ZimOnline"