Senator Teresa Kabondo has called on Government to expand open prison facilities for mothers serving custodial sentences with young children, citing concerns over the children’s nutrition, healthcare and overall development.
Contributing to debate on a motion on children of incarcerated mothers, introduced by Senator Tongogara, Kabondo said children living in prisons were being subjected to conditions associated with imprisonment despite having committed no offences.
“These children have not been tried or sentenced and yet they wake up behind prison walls, eat prison food and sleep behind locked prison doors. They are serving a sentence that no court ever passed on them,” she said.
Kabondo said the Senate’s Thematic Committee on Gender and Development had previously raised concerns about the welfare of children living in prisons following visits to five correctional facilities, including Lupane Prison, in 2022.
On this topic
The committee found that none of the facilities visited met the recommended dietary requirements for children. Access to adequate clothing, medication and sanitary wear also largely depended on donations, she said.
Apart from Chikurubi Female Prison, the facilities had no playgrounds, leaving children with limited opportunities to play and interact outside prison cells.
Kabondo said the situation at Chikurubi Female Prison was also concerning, with 24 babies reportedly living at the facility in 2025, the highest number recorded since it opened in 1970.
She also cited a study published this year by researchers from Lupane State University, which found that children at Chikurubi experienced poor nutrition, limited access to healthcare and loneliness because they had few opportunities to interact and play with other children.
“A study published this year by researchers, again from Lupane State University, in my province, found that children in Chikurubi Female Prison suffer from poor nutrition, limited health care and loneliness because they do not have other kids to play with. Mr. President, a child in prison should not depend on charity for porridge,” she said.
The senator called on the responsible ministry to introduce clear national guidelines, backed by adequate funding, to ensure that children in correctional facilities receive proper nutrition, clothing, immunisation and regular medical check-ups.
She also raised concern over reports that some children remain in prison for up to four years because relatives or social welfare officers do not come forward to take them into their care.
Kabondo urged the Department of Social Welfare to strengthen its role in finding appropriate care arrangements for the children.
“The department of Social Welfare must play its part so that no child stays behind prison bars simply because nobody cares for them,” she said.
She further called on Zimbabwe to consider alternatives to custodial sentences for pregnant women and mothers, in line with the United Nations Bangkok Rules, which encourage non-custodial sentences for pregnant women where possible and appropriate.
Kabondo said Government should conduct a comprehensive assessment of children living in prisons to establish their numbers and welfare needs, followed by a funded action plan with clear implementation timelines.
She said the findings should be presented to the Senate to ensure that commitments to improve the children’s welfare resulted in concrete action.
In an appeal to fellow senators, Kabondo referred to English poet Thomas Hardy’s To an Unborn Pauper Child, written by the poet who lived from 1840 to 1928, to illustrate the suffering of children born into difficult circumstances.
She said the poem reflected a world in which children faced hardship even before birth, but argued that the children whose welfare was being debated in Parliament were already living with difficult circumstances.
“What are we as the Senate going to do for these children? We can make laws that can make their suffering better than what it is before we make that law,” she said.
Kabondo said the way a country treated vulnerable children reflected its values, urging legislators to ensure that children were not made to suffer because of offences committed by their parents.
“A nation is judged by how it treats those who cannot speak for themselves. We never choose parents. Such are these children. They never chose their parents. Let us make sure we come up with laws, which do not punish the innocent for the wrongs of the guilty because of the blood that connects them,” she said.
Leave a Reply