Fig 6: Food containers at Mutimurefu in Masvingo Farm Prison and clothing situation at Rusape Remand Prison In terms of access to running water, the situation differed from one prison to the other. Prisons such as Karoi, Shurugwi and Mutare faced serious shortages of running water and there was no provision of adequate tanks to store reserved water. Prisons such as Beitbridge, Hurungwe, and Kariba among others indicated that they had constant running water supply and enough tanks to store water. The clothing, bedding and sanitation situation left a lot to be desired. Uniform shortages were a cause for concern across all prisons as prisoners were only allocated one pair per person. At Prisons such as Whawha Young Offenders, Whawha Medium and Mutare Farm inmates wore worn out uniforms thereby violating the right to human dignity. Sanitary wear for female inmates was moderate at most prisons. However, female inmates indicated that they did not have sufficient under-garments. Female inmates also raised concern relating to the wellbeing of their children in prison. The ZHRC monitoring team noted that there were no facilities in place to cater for the needs of children accompanying their mothers in prison which is detrimental to the welfare, physical and mental development of the children. They lacked social skills and attempts to integrate them with other children outside the prison complex exposed a lot of fear and confusion in them. This is a clear violation of children’s rights needing urgent attention from ZPCS and all other relevant stakeholders. The health facilities at all the detention centers were in dire need of financial resources. In as much as the prisons had a clinic within their premises, there were staff shortages when determining the doctor patient ratio as well as limited nurses. As a consequence, prisons refer chronically ill patients to the nearest Government hospitals that also face financial challenges. In addition, transport to take patients to hospitals was a challenge. An example of this limitation is a finding made from the Midlands Province where there is only one available ambulance to ferry patients of the 14 prisons in the region. Drugs continue to be in short supply for all the prisons monitored with only the availability of painkillers such as paracetamol which is not effective particularly for cases where a patient is experiencing pain. Protecting, Promoting and Enforcing Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 19