5.1 Separation from Adult Prisoners Although efforts have been made to protect children’s rights during incarceration, children are for the most part not separated from adults while in prison. Some prisons have no specific cells for juvenile offenders and children are mixed with adults. Following the mass arrest in January 2019, the prison population became higher than normal, and the overcrowding left no room for separate facilities for children. Failure to separate children from adults in prisons exposes children to abuse and the criminogenic effects of prison. However, this failure to separate children from adults in prison is not a problem of the law, but of implementation. The law is clear in both the Constitution and in statutes that children should be kept separately from adults. 5.2 Conditions of Prison and Treatment that is appropriate to the Child’s Age Various researches and reports indicate that the conditions in Zimbabwe’s prisons are generally appalling.53 Prison conditions are not suitable and desirable for children. Zimbabwe’s prisons are old and lacking in infrastructure and resources, with most prison infrastructure inherited from colonial times. No separate facilities were built in prisons to cater specifically for children and their needs. 5.3 Prison Officers Denying Access to Lawyers In the case of the child who was detained a Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, lawyers responded to a call and travelled to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison to see the child. At the prison, the lawyers were informed by prison officials that the child had been moved, and were not allowed in. Yet the child was still inside the prison. As a result, lawyers were unable to assess the condition of the child and to take instructions. The child was to appear at Rotten Row Court the following day on 25 January 2019, at which point the lawyers were notified of his appearance at court. The lawyers then rushed and attended to the child in court. In June 2019 it was reported that the conditions at Chikurubi Maximum Prison where less than satisfactory as a result of overcrowding at the institution. The prison which is supposed to house 1 360 prisoners at the men’s section had 2 508 men.54 There have been reports of shortage of medicines, food and bedding in prisons. It has also been reported that the prisons are infested with lice and vermin.55 Due to overcrowding in the prisons, there are shortages of food and blankets, and there is limited access to bathing facilities. Children who were detained in prisons during the period under review faced these challenges. Prison conditions have been worsened by the economic crisis facing Zimbabwe, which has seen little resources channelled towards improvement of prison conditions. 53. See for instance Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum “Rights Behind Bars: A Study of Prison Conditions in Zimbabwe 2018” available at http://www.hrforumzim.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Prision-Report-2018.pdf and Shadreck Vengesai “Juvenile Justice in Zimbabwe: A contradiction bewtween theory and Practice: An analsis of Zimbabwe’s Compliance with article 37 and 40 CRC and Article 17 ACRWC” Unpublished LLM thesis, Tilburg University, page 42. 54. “Prisons under Siege as Zimbabwe’s economic woes persist” https://www .thesouthafrican.com/news/zimbabwe-prisonconditions-june-2019 55. Ibid 29 ‘Hear them Cry ’ – An Analysis of State Violence Against Children During the January 2019 Protests