Khami Prison is using “plastics and cardboard box material” as doors and handcuffs as locks, a report by MPs has revealed.
The report, compiled by the Senate Thematic Committee on Human
Rights, says cells at one of the country’s largest detention facilities
are frequently flooded during the rainy season because of dilapidated
roofing.
Prisoners also sleep on the floor because there are no beds or mattresses.
Khami Prison Complex on the outskirts of Bulawayo consists of four
penitentiaries: maximum, medium, remand and the women’s prison in
Mlondolozi. It holds over 2 000 of the country’s estimated 15 000
inmates.
In their report published last week, the Senators said: “The
committee heard that the Zimbabwe Prison Services was failing to
maintain the prison complex particularly the infrastructure.
“For example, there were no locks on some doors. Some wooden doors
had been attacked by termites and were beyond repair. Plastic and
cardboard box materials were used as doors.
“The ablution facilities for Khami Remand were not functional and
said to be beyond repair. The situation was worsened by lack of adequate
water to flush the system. All this was blamed on the unavailability of
funds.
“Window panes were broken and needed to be repaired. Some roof sheets
were blown away by winds resulting in rain leaking into the cells.
“The committee also heard that prisoners sleep on the floor because
Zimbabwe Prison Services was unable to provide beds or mattresses.
“Within the prison, there are non-functional cells as locks were
tempered with by prisoners who wanted to escape sometime in March 2011.
The officer-in-charge told the committee that A Hall had 14 while B Hall
had 34 non-functional cells.
“The committee also heard that Khami Remand was not allocated funds
to purchase padlocks and to replace the wooden doors that were damaged
by termites. The officials felt this was too risky considering that
there were fifteen prisoners on life sentences at Khami Remand.”
The report said inmates were entitled to three blankets each, but had two.
The senators said Khami Maximum Hospital lacked important machinery
like X-ray machines, a CD4 count machine and furniture. The prison had
to outsource when a prisoner needed such services which was costly and
compromised security.
Khami has an education department that teaches Grade 1 up to “A”
Level and there are professional teachers and some inmates who were
teachers before incarceration who assist. But the lawmakers found there
was no crèche for children accompanying female inmates.
“Prisoners informed the committee that they were being served supper at 2pm and by 7pm they would be hungry,” the report added.
“On homosexuality, the committee heard that the prison had measures
to control any incidents of homosexuality. The officer-in-charge
informed the committee that offenders were prosecuted.”
Khami Medium sits on 2 777 hectares of farmland and has a herd of 430 dairy and range cattle.
The prison’s garden supplies vegetables to prisons in the whole
Matabeleland region, but money generated from farming was said to be
insufficient to purchase farm implements and stockfeed for cattle. —
NewZimbabwe.com

Prisoners should be treated like humans , funds allocated for prison services should be used to keep them in good conditions to avoid spreading of diseases. The authourities must do something about these gruesome conditons
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