By Own Correspondent| Chikurubi Maximum Prison is housing at least 2 500 D class inmates and the number of prison officers manning the prisoners is way below the required number, the Deputy Commissioner General in the Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services Aubrey Machingauta has revealed.

Commissioner General Machingauta revealed this while presenting the prisons and correctional services budget submissions to the Parliamentary portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs recently.

Prisoners in Zimbabwe are graded into four classes -A-D. Those in Class D are the ones serving long-term sentences ranging from seven years and above, including those who would have committed serious crimes some of which include murder, armed robbery, fraud or rape among others.

Said Commissioner General Machingauta:

“At Chikurubi Maximum Prison, where we have about 2 500 D class inmates and if you can give that ratio, you find that there are a lot of officers that are needed. We have a serious shortage of officers to do the manning of D class inmates.

There are two types of inmates to officer ratio. The first is when they (inmates) are going for working parties in their different areas of work and the ratio is 1 officer to 5 inmates for these other projects where the inmates will be going to work.

And then there are other classes such as the D classes whose inmates do not do much activities. For example, when they are being escorted to court, the ratio has to be 1 as to 3 inmates.”

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Virginia Mabhiza concurred adding that the ratio of inmates to officers was worrying as it posed a security risk.

“Ideally, it is supposed to be 1 as to 3 where one officer is not supposed to be responsible for over 3 inmates… But at the moment, 1 officer is responsible for at least 10 inmates.”