The children suffer untold hardships including poor shelter, lack of food, water, sanitation, clothing and bedding facilities. Very few of them have any access to educational and medical facilities.
Deputy Prisons ZPCS Commissioner General, Aggrey Huggins Machingauta, recently told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Human Rights that children in prison, who could not be separated from their convicted mothers, would live normal lives like their peers outside jails.
He said there were 29 such youngsters in prison at the moment and they were being given Early Child Development education at prison schools, where they attend lessons together with the children of prison officers and surrounding communities.
“We are doing everything possible to make these children’s lives as normal as possible, as we are not happy to have innocent children incarcerated together with guilty mothers,” Machingauta said. He also suggested that convicts with children should be provided with separate living facilities.
Despite efforts by the authorities to provide nutritious food according to recommendations, budget constraints remained a challenge in feeding the children, he said.
Open prison
To accelerate the restoration of the children’s rights and provision of basics, Machingauta said: “Since all women in prison qualify for open prison sentence, creation of the facility should be speeded up as incarceration of innocent children is unconstitutional.”
According to Machingauta, it was a painful experience for prison officers to lock up innocent children in prison at the end of each working day. If he could have his way, amnesty for all women inmates would be a good starting point to improve the lives of the children.
To help brush do away with the stigma attached to children born of incarcerated mothers, he said expecting imprisoned mothers would be transferred to public hospitals to deliver their babies in future.
Post published in: News