Apr 17, 2021 - Health

Zimbabwe releases hundreds of prisoners to reduce COVID risk

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Prisoners wave at their former inmates after walking free from Chikurubi Female Prison in Harare. Photo: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images

Zimbabwe on Saturday released more than 300 prisoners to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 in the country's overcrowded prisons, per the New York Times.

Driving the news: The latest round of prisoner releases comes as the country experiences another wave of the pandemic, driven in part by the more contagious B.1.351 variant first discovered in South Africa.

Zimbabwe has recorded more than 37,500 COVID-19 cases and 1,552 deaths since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Details: The prisoners are being released under a presidential amnesty program put in place by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2018, per AP.

Those released are mostly nonviolent offenders.
Many were held in country's Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, which is known for overcrowding and poor conditions, according to the Times.

The big picture: The country's prisons have the capacity to hold about 17,000 prisoners, but they housed 22,000 before Mnangagwa declared the amnesty.

Zimbabwe released thousands of prisoners between March and June 2020, per the Times.
Of note: Saturday's move also comes "amid growing allegations that a government crackdown has sent dozens of activists, journalists and opposition leaders to prisons," the Times noted.

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Zimbabwe releases hundreds of prisoners to reduce COVID risk

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