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ZACRO
2008 annual report
Zimbabwe
Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender
(ZACRO)
January 05, 2009
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Situational
analysis of Zimbabwean prisons
As well documented
in this annual report it is vital to acknowledge the situational
analysis of Zimbabwean prisons before acquainted with the ZACRO
programming and interventions during 2008. Important to note was
that prisons continued to remain as secretive and closed institutions
to majority people yet real experiences in the prisons revealed
numerous issues around plight of inmates which demanded intervention
by ZACRO.
This was in the wake that conditions of prisons deteriorated drastically
while political will was not responding to the challenges facing
Zimbabwe's prisons. Findings revealed that with a capacity
around 17 000, the country's 55 prisons including satellites
were overcrowded which was one of the major challenges facing prisons
during the period under review.
Other problems affecting
the penal institutions included unhygienic conditions, lack of proper
food, medical facilities and care, spread of diseases - in
particular HIV Aids and opportunistic diseases such as Tuberculosis
(TB). In fact food and clothing constituted a massive humanitarian
crisis in Zimbabwean prisons.
Meanwhile ZACRO supported
imprisonment for the benefit of society through correctional means
with emphasis placed on rehabilitation, integration, restoration,
provision of humanitarian assistance to the inmates and ex-offenders
while advocating for liberal penal reforms involving positive human
rights programming. Such interventions by ZACRO were in line with
complementing efforts by Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) which involved
introduction of more professionals like social workers to work around
the welfare, rehabilitation of inmates and restoration ex-offenders
into the main stream society.
The interventions were
testimony involving shifting prisons from mere incarceration centers
to correctional and rehabilitative institutions while Zimbabwe maintains
UN and other protocols on Standard Minimum Treatment Rules of prisoners
to which the country is a signatory.
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