ATTORNEY-GENERAL Virginia Mabiza says the Zimbabwean law allows incarcerated mothers to be with their infants in prison.
Mabhiza was responding to an image that was circulated on X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms of a woman with a child on her back at a Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services facility.
The woman was arrested last month as police pounced on opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party supporters who were holding a meeting at top party official Jameson Timba’s house in Avondale, Harare.
The CCC activists are in remand prison after being denied bail by the magistrates’ court countless times with only Timba’s son having been released into his parents’ custody.
However, Mabiza said the Prisons and Correctional Service Act [Chapter 7:23] provided for three possible options in addressing the status of children accompanying their incarcerated mothers including that for the mother to remain with their infant in jail.
“Section 71 of the Act, expressly stipulates that a female inmate may be admitted into a prison or correctional facility for custody with her infant. Such an infant shall be supplied with food, clothing and other necessities by the State,” she said in a statement.
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“In terms of the Act: (a) an infant may accompany their mother and reside with her in the prison or correctional facility until such infant attains the age of 36 months and up to 59 months; (b) an infant may be let in the care of relatives who are willing and able to support; and (c) if the mother has no relatives or friends who are willing and able to care for the child, the infant may be placed, subject to relevant laws, to the care of welfare authorities.”
She said female inmates accompanied by infants are informed of the options before incarceration.
Mabhiza said female inmates accompanied by infants opted not to be separated from their infants as they would be breastfeeding or because they did not have relatives who could look after their children while they were in prison.
A special treatment is accorded to children of incarcerated mothers and there is a dietary scale for such children up to the age of 54 months, Mabiza said.