to condone or even encourage the criminal behavior of their juniors. In addition to extensive efforts to properly train police officers not only in policing skills but in human rights norms, what is needed is an independent authority to investigate and deal with allegations of unlawful activity, including torture and ‘police brutality.’ This is an area where civil society can take the initiative in proposing such an independent organ, drawing on the experience elsewhere (including post-apartheid South Africa) where efforts have been made to solve the same problem. Any such organ, as with a TJRC, will only be effective if it is genuinely independent, properly staffed and adequately financed. Creating such a body on paper and through legislation is one thing, but making it work is another, requiring the political will of Government. As with the ZRP, so with the Zimbabwe Prison Service and the treatment of prisoners generally. It is well known in the country that currently the jails are the scenes of on-going serious human 36 rights abuses. Of equal concern are the appalling conditions of gross overcrowding, the inadequacies of proper food, medical care and hygiene, and overall neglect, which singly and combined constitute cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment and punishment. Part of the reason lies in Zimbabwe’s catastrophic economic decline and endemic corruption: prisoners are entirely marginalized and at the mercy of their custodians, and in the current political climate they are subject to even greater degrees of brutality, extortion and abuse than ‘normal.’ 36 See for example the report posted on the ZWNEWS website on 6 February 2004: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=8581 Under the heading “Overcrowding leads to prison crisis,” it chronicled how jails designed for 16,600 have overshot that figure by more than 8,000 according to justice ministry officials. Prisoners take turns to sleep. The sheer number of deaths from infectious diseases has lead prison authorities to introduce a daily fiveminute programme on national radio appealing for relatives to collect the bodies of the deceased. Critical food shortages mean inmates get maize porridge seasoned with salt for breakfast, and boiled cabbage for lunch and supper. The brutality of prison officers was revealed in a recent report presented to the justice ministry by a parliamentary committee. The large number of MDC leaders arrested and detained for various lengths of time in recent years has also revealed eye-witness accounts of appalling conditions for those awaiting trial, or who are incarcerated pending bail hearings. 27