[JURIST] More than 2,000 inmates across Zimbabwe were granted amnesty and released from prison due to overcrowding and a lack of food, according to a report [The Herald report] Thursday. President Robert Mugabe, who extended the pardon under the Constitution of Zimbabwe on May 23, hopes that this measure will serve to remedy overcrowding and promote better living conditions for prisoners. The pardon granted freedom to all female prisoners that were not currently serving life sentences, all juvenile prisoners, regardless of the seriousness of their offense, “as well as all prisoners with life sentences convicted on or before December 25, 1995” among other groups. Those other individuals convicted of murder, treason, rape, armed robbery, car-jacking, sexual offenses, or violence driven crimes will remain in prison, along with habitual criminals and those currently facing death sentences or that were given life sentences after December 25, 1995. Scores of inmates in Zimbabwe over the past decade have died due to “nutrition-related illnesses [NPR report].

In April 2015, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) [official website] announced that prison overcrowding has reached “epidemic proportions” [JURIST report] worldwide. Later that year, the UN torture prevention body urged [JURIST report] the Philippines to address the pressing concern of prison overcrowding. In July 2014 the French Senate adopted a measure [JURIST report] in an attempt to reduce prison overcrowding. In August 2013 the Italian Senate approved a measure [JURIST report] to ease some of the worst prison overcrowding in Europe by cutting pre-trial detentions and using alternative punishments for minor offenses. The move came after the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to address the problem [JURIST report] within a year. In August 2012 the Colombian Ministry of Justice announced a new initiative [JURIST report] to solve the problem of overcrowding in the nation’s prisons. In June 2012 UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang urged the government of Malawi [JURIST report] to address the problem of prison overcrowding and improve the human rights condition in the country. In April 2012 South Africa announced that it would issue pardons [JURIST report] to 35,000 offenders in order to ease prison overcrowding.