By Own Correspondent| Budgetary constraints have ravaged the country’s prisons body Zimbabwe Prisons And Correctional Services, leaving them with no choice but to seek presidential amnesty for 5000 inmates to decongest prisons and manage their numbers.

According to Secretary in the Justice Ministry, Mrs Virginia Mabhiza:

We are simply saying the budget is no longer sufficient to cater for our inmates so we are doing whatever we can to make sure we provide at least something for them

Our prisons are way overpopulated, they are exceeding the carrying capacity, hence the need to come up with de-congesting measures.

We have tried the Presidential amnesty but we are now working on having more open prisons throughout the country. In an effort to decongest, we have already finished our paperwork in which 5 000 are set to benefit from the Presidential amnesty.

Zimbabwe’s 46 prisons and correctional facilities have the capacity to hold 17 000 inmates. 20698 inmates are incarcerated in these facilities countrywide at the moment.