2009-06-01
Prison in Zimbabwe: A ‘Hell Hole’
Whilst the country struggles in the grip of an economic and humanitarian crisis, it is easy to forget about those who are currently imprisoned in Zimbabwe. However, extreme malnutrion and disease bought about by lack of basic provisions and appalling living conditions are the grim reality of Zimbabwe's prisons.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported
in June that it had begun to distribute food and supplies to the prisons in Zimbabwe.
After conducting a survey of the country’s prisons, the results of which are
confidential, the ICRC has initiated a therapeutic feeding programme for 6,300
prison inmates designed to combat malnutrition. Despite their refusal to
comment on the prison conditions, the ICRC’s intervention can be taken as an
indication of gravity of Zimbabwe’s
prison situation.
In April of this year, there was an international outcry
when the South African Broadcasting Committee aired a documentary entitled
“Hell Hole” that consisted of footage secretly filmed inside Zimbabwe’s
prisons over a period of three months. The documentary contained images of
emaciated inmates surviving off one meal a day and residing in filthy,
overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Deprived of food and medical care, many
of those who featured in the documentary have since died.
The Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and the Rehabilitation of the Offender organisation published a report last year which estimated that despite a total capacity of 17,000 inmates, that the fifty five Zimbabwean prisons currently house more than 35,000 individuals. In the same report it was estimated that about twenty inmates a day are dying as a result of the horrific conditions.
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