Harare Central Prison Cell Scrutinised By Judges

This week The Herald reported that a five-judge panel led by Justice Vernanda Ziyambi took a trip to Harare Central Police Station to assess the conditions at the police station.

This was done as the panel determined a constitutional application by four women seeking a declaratory order condemning the cells as inhumane and degrading.

The four women Ms Jennifer Williams, Ms Magodonga Mahlangu, Ms Clara Manjengwa and Ms Celina Madukani are members of Zimbabwe Arise and were arrested following a demonstration on April 15 2010.

They spent at least three nights in the cells and it is their experience an deplorable conditions at Harare Central Police that compelled them to begin legal proceedings.

In our opinion the problems of the Zimbabwean prisons are not beyond resolution, they can be solved. However we at times get the feeling that solutions as simple as they may appear are not that easy to implement.

Many suggestions have been made to improve Zimbabwe prison, for instance, sometime beginning of the year there was talk of launching a pilot project at a Marondera prison based on the open prison system. Such an idea will help decongest the prison cells and easy the pressure on the limited resources.

There have been many other good ideas to improve the prison system but these ideas somehow they somehow fizzle into oblivion.

The cells at Harare Central are no Holiday-Inn and if there’s a semblance of sanity in the judges then they should compel the powers that be to improve the state of the prison cells, but are we doing cartwheels and jumping up and down with joy because better cell conditions are in the horizon? ….go figure.