Whawha Prison, outside Midlands province capital Gweru, has been infested by bedbugs, Southern Eye has learnt.
According to families of inmates at the jail, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, the infestation has been worsened by recurrent water
shortages at the correctional facility.
“I have a relative who is covered in bites following the
outbreak of bedbugs,” a relative of an inmate at WhaWha Prison said.
Another relative told Southern Eye that her son complained
of painful bites from lice that have infested the prison cells.
Although Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS)
national spokesperson Chief Superintendent Meya Khanyezi was not immediately
available for comment, a prison officer at WhaWha yesterday confirmed to
Southern Eye that there is bedbug infestation at the prison.
He also indicated that the prison was struggling to
adequately feed the inmates and to fumigate the jail.
“We have a serious challenge of resources and we haven’t
fumigated the whole jail for quite some time,” he said, however, declining to
give his name because he was not authorised to comment.
“Water shortages are some of the serious problems we
encounter, and given the different types of inmates we have here, hygiene
issues become difficult to deal with,” he added.
Over the years, the country’s prisoners have been facing
resource challenges, overcrowding, poor diet, and living in unhygienic
environments as well as wearing worn out uniforms.
The country’s prisons have poor ventilation and poor
sanitary conditions. The water and power supplies are erratic.
Early this month, ZPCS Commissioner-general Moses Chikobvu
revealed that infrastructure at the country’s prisons was not suitable for
young inmates during a visit to WhaWha Prison by a delegation from Botswana
Prison Services.
A 2021 United States human rights report also decried
prison conditions describing them as harsh and life-threatening due to
overcrowding, food shortages, lack of water, physical mistreatment of
prisoners, lack of access to personal protective equipment to mitigate the
spread of COVID-19 and bad sanitary conditions and poor medical care.
“Prison guards occasionally beat and abuse prisoners.
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) reported the use of excessive force, but
noted that prison guards did not employ excessive force systematically.
Conditions in prisons, jails, and detention centres were harsh. While some
prisons operated below capacity, NGOs that reported most were overcrowded due
to outdated infrastructure and judicial backlogs.
“The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS),
responsible for maintaining prisons, prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration
into society, did not provide adequate food, water, sanitary conditions, or
personal protective equipment during the global pandemic. ZPCS sometimes
allowed faith-based and community organisations to help address these
problems,” the US embassy report read.
They said detainees, who were denied bail, were often held
in severely overcrowded remand cells for several years, while awaiting trial.
Newsday
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