adminZvamaida Murwira Harare Bureau
Some inmates held in Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services facilities are going naked owing to inadequate supply of uniforms, legislators heard yesterday.
The Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender chief executive officer Edson Chiota said the ZPCS was so underfunded that it was failing to procure uniforms for inmates.
He said this while giving oral evidence before a Senate Thematic Committee on Human Rights on the organisation’s views on the state of the justice delivery system.
“There is an issue of welfare of inmates,” he said. “If people would like to make a visit, they would witness that on a number of occasions some prisoners go naked because there is inadequate resources in terms of funds sent to the prison department.
“It has become a situation where some people become uneasy when they go to prison. For example, there are times when we have female officers manning male prison and they end up seeing these inmates naked.”
Harare Metropolitan Senator Sekai Holland (MDC-T) expressed shock at the revelations.
Bulawayo Metropolitan Senator Agnes Sibanda (MDC-T) asked if it was not possible to allow inmates to put their own clothes that could be provided by relatives, instead of uniforms.
Chiota said the situation was more rife in remotely situated prisons and would be more evident when one got there unannounced and not through organised trips by the ZPCS. He said they worked with some churches and other well wishers to mitigate the situation.
When contacted for comment, ZPCS spokesperson Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Banda said the situation with regards to uniforms had been bad but denied inmates go naked..
derick.khumalo