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Bulawayo- At least 17 out of the over 2 000 prisoners released from prison under the presidential amnesty in February this year have been re-arrested, an official said on Friday.Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) chief prison officer Solomon Mutamba said the 17 had had been arrested for cases that had been pending while they were serving terms before the amnesty.
“A survey that we conducted showed that the majority of those that have returned had further charges,” he said.
“Many of them did not taste freedom as they were immediately re-arrested and taken to court,’ he added.
Mutamba was speaking at the on-going 55th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
The fair was running under the theme “New ideas to new heights: Progress through innovation.”
He said the ZPCS viewed the number of prisoners that returned as small considering that they had come from the 46 prisons that it operated.
Mutamba attributed the small number of prisoners re-arrested to the rehabilitation programmes that the ZPCS was implementing to prepare for life out of prison.
‘We are now looking at the person and identifying their specific needs rather than grouping people and sending them for hard labour,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mutamba said the ZPCS had re-branded in line with its mandate in the new constitution.
“Our mandate in the new constitution is to promote efforts towards rehabilitation,” he said. –New Ziana
Online Reporter