CIVIL rights activist Linda Masarira has urged the government to allocate adequate funds to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) in the 2018 National Budget to improve the deplorable conditions in the country’s correctional facilities. BY CLAYTON MASEKESA
Contributing in the Parliament of Zimbabwe-organised National Budget consultations held in Mutare recently, Masarira bemoaned the state of the country’s prisons and poor food provided to inmates.
Zaka East MP Samson Mukanduri chaired the meeting.
“The state of Zimbabwean prisons is so pathetic. More funds should be allocated for the improvement of the prisons in this country. Prisons are meant to offer correctional services to inmates, but the situation on the ground is that prison life is tantamount to a death sentence as the conditions themselves can condemn one to death,” she said.
Masarira said prison food was not fit for human consumption.
“I have been there and I am talking from experience. The kind of food served in our prisons has no nutritional value. Prisoners are fed with watery soup and it is very inhuman. Prisoners have a right to live a standard or normal life. They are human beings too,” she said.
Mukanduri said Parliament had noted the concerns raised over the dire state of prisons and would engage the responsible authorities over the issue.
Last year, it was recommended that there was need for increased funding to ZPCS to improve the quality of food, accommodation and transport for prisoners.
