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The exercise to release more than 2,000 prisoners, mostly females and juveniles, pardoned by President Mugabe, started on Monday. The country’s 42 prisons had 18,980 inmates which was 12 percent above their combined holding capacity of 17,000. President Mugabe extended the presidential pardon on the 12th of this month. Under the Clemency Order No 1 of 2014, the President granted remission of the remainder of the periods of imprisonment to female prisoners regardless of the offence committed save for those sentenced to life imprisonment or death. This means that all female prisoners at Chikurubi Female Prison would be set free save for two who were sentenced to death and one who was sentenced to life.
President Mugabe also granted a full remission of the remaining period of imprisonment to all juvenile prisoners under the age of 18 years serving imprisonment irrespective of the offences they committed. Prisoners sentenced to 36 months and below and have already served a quarter of their sentences are also set to also benefit from the presidential pardon. The more than 2,000 prisoners that are set to be released are therefore joining society earlier than expected.
Among these are dangerous criminals such as armed robbers, murderers and rapists and society was obviously relieved without these outcasts. Now that these prisoners have been released, society should be ready to accommodate them and it is everybody’s hope that their period of incarceration has changed them into law abiding citizens. Imprisonment, it has to be emphasised, is not meant to just punish the offender but to also rehabilitate him or her so that when one comes out of prison, he or she becomes a useful member of society.
We have every reason to believe that those that have served a jail term now appreciate the anguish and suffering they caused to society by engaging in crime. Families have lost their loved ones, others have lost property while others have been maimed as a result of crime. These victims of crime have every reason to feel shortchanged when they see the offenders walking the streets free persons.
The released prisoners therefore have a challenge to pay back society which has not only forgiven them for their sins but has granted them freedom to start a new life. The programme to rehabilitate prisoners, we want to believe, starts as soon as the inmate starts serving his or her jail term hence this belief that all those being released are now changed persons.
Organisations such as the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and the Rehabilitation of the Offender (Zacro) that have been involved in the programme of rehabilitating prisoners have a mammoth task following the release of such a big number of prisoners.
Many of these prisoners might find it difficult to rejoin even their own families while those who were married might find their spouses with new partners.
Life has to go on and as rightly observed by Zimbabwe Prison Services spokesperson, Chief Supt Elizabeth Banda, it is not going to be all rosy out there for the released prisoners. Society could worsen the situation by rejecting the released prisoners which might increase cases of recidivism.
We want to once again call on society to brace for this new dispensation which unfortunately might mean increased crime. What is crucial is to assist the released prisoners to become productive members of their respective communities given the fact that many of them acquired useful skills while in prison such as welding, animal husbandry, carpentry, dressmaking and many other such skills that should assist them to earn a living without engaging in crime.
Online Reporter