JUSTICE Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi has said processes are underway to amend the recent clemency order and
ensure more categories of prisoners benefit from the Presidential amnesty as an
urgent measure to decongest prisons.
Government is also working on transferring inmates from
heavily-congested prisons to less-populated centres to promote social
distancing.
Early this month, President Mnangagwa exercised his
constitutional powers of mercy to effect the amnesty to reduce the prison population
to levels that could be accommodated safely.
Only 1 680 were released, a figure far off the targeted 5
000. The country’s prisons, whose holding capacity is 17 000, had about 22 000
inmates prior to the amnesty, but the figure dropped by 1 680.
Only 53 women benefited from the amnesty after it turned
out that most of them committed specified offences like murder, robbery,
carjacking, sexual offences and public violence.
Women prisoners who have served at least half their
effective sentence, juvenile prisoners who have served a third; those sentenced
to 36 months or less who have served half and those over 70 who have served
half qualified for release as long as they were not serving for specified
offences.
Offenders excluded from the amnesty include those convicted
of murder, treason, rape or any sexual offence, carjacking, robbery,
stock-theft and public violence, plus any conspiracy, incitement or attempt to
commit these crimes or being an accessory.
Also excluded are prisoners who benefited from a previous
amnesty, those jailed by a court martial, which would apply to certain offences
by members of the defence forces and prisoners with a record for escaping from
lawful custody.
Minister Ziyambi said Government was working on amending
the clemency order to allow more categories of prisoners to benefit.
“As a stop-gap measure, we are in the process of amending
the clemency proclamation so that it includes other categories of offenders in
a bid to reduce the prison population.
“We are also considering transferring some categories of
prisoners to other jails that are not crowded as a way of maintaining social
distance in light of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi said Government was also planning to
construct new prisons.
“Our prisons were constructed long back when our national
population was around seven million, but the figures have now ballooned to
around 13 million people.
“That calls for expansion of prison facilities to
accommodate more offenders. To that end, we have approached Treasury for
funding,” said Minister Ziyambi.
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare has remained overcrowded
by 94 percent despite the recent Presidential amnesty that freed prisoners.
Only 19 inmates qualified for amnesty in the section of most serious offenders,
resulting in the population insignificantly dropping from 2 654 to 2 635.
The current population remains close to double the prison’s
ideal holding capacity of 1 360 and the situation has strained the prison’s
resources, including food and water supplies.
Chikurubi alone requires 1,6 tonnes of maize meal daily and
the authorities are struggling to source the scarce commodity. Herald
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