Online ReporterNqobile Tshili, [email protected]
PLANS are underway for the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) to launch a community-inclusive reintegration foundation to enhance the integration of prisoners into broader society after serving their sentences.
While ZPCS has changed its thrust from punishment of inmates to rehabilitation-oriented programming for inmates, societal reintegration has remained a challenge.
The failure of society to accept inmates back has resulted in some of the prisoners re-offending as they find a sanctuary behind bars.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat training of ZPCS senior officers’ programme in Bulawayo, ZPCS Commissioner General, Moses Chihobvu, said the country’s prison system wants an inclusive approach to the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners.
The five-day workshop is attended by senior prison officers with the ranks of assistant commissioners and commissioners.
“We are going to establish a Reintegration Foundation and that foundation is going to comprise all stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, retired officers who had been working in the prisons and the community. We’re looking at having SADC officers participating in this foundation,” said Comm Gen Chihobvu.
He said the objective of the foundation was to source resources for reintegration of prisoners.
“You might have realised that when we were doing our rehabilitation in the past, we were concentrating on rehabilitation. We were not concentrating more on reintegration. Now that the ACT allows us to do rehabilitation up to reintegration, we are also now looking at how best we can do reintegration of our inmates,” said Comm Gen Chihobvu.
“When we do a proper reintegration it will assist in recidivism to be maintained. We will then achieve that prisoners should not come back to prison in what we call recidivism,” he said.
Comm Gen Chihobvu said ZPCS cannot go it alone in the rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates back into society. He said society plays a major in the reintegration of prisoners.
“The prisoner comes from the community and has to go back to the community. So, the community should make sure that they also accept the person who also comes from prison,” he said.
“This person would have been rehabilitated and is prepared for reintegration. So, they should make sure that they also participate. They need to participate from rehabilitation to reintegration.”
Com Gen Chihobvu said the training they are undertaking through the guidance of the SADC secretariat is aimed at educating senior prison officers on the management of prisoners.
He said at the end of the training exercise they hope to have streamlined the rehabilitation programmes.
“We are moving from prison to a correctional institution. We want all these senior officers to know that we are moving in the direction of correction and we should move away from the old way of doing things and we should concentrate on rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates,” said Comm Gen Chihobvu.
“We are very happy that we managed to get support from SADC. We have SADC senior officers here working together as it enables us to learn new ways of running a correctional facility,” he said.
“We seek to achieve a proper way of conducting rehabilitation activities and how to manage our provinces in a co-ordinated effort. — @nqotshili
