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Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister Cde Mandi Chimene (centre) and Officer Commanding Prisons Manicaland Province, Senior Assistant Commissioner Didymus Chimvura are welcomed by inmates at Mutare Farm Prison on Saturday during celebrations to mark Africa Prison Day

Fungayi Munyoro Mutare Correspondent
Government has commended the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) for collaborating with civic and church organisations to successfully rehabilitate offenders. Addressing delegates at the commemorations of Africa Prison Day at Mutare Farm Prison last Saturday, Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister Cde Mandi Chimene said the department had done well in ensuring programmes that would rehabilitate prisoners and integrate them back into the community.

“Such have seen the initiation of programmes that focus on educational and vocational training, psychological support, promotion of familial values beyond prison, access to religious services and integration of civic society in order to rehabilitate prisoners and integrate them in the community,” she said.

Cde Chimene acknowledged the scarcity of resources in most prisons in the country, which sometimes hindered the success of such initiatives. Speaking at the same event, Officer Commanding Prisons Manicaland Province, Senior Assistant Commissioner Didymus Chimvura said prison services had come a long way.

“Prison institutions were known as places of torture and punishment. In that regard, the majority of people were not prepared to be associated with prisons or prisoners. Even in this very day, some people still consider prisons in the physical aspect, which includes high walls, razor wire, cruel officers, barking dogs, locked doors and small burglar barred windows. It is, however, quite pleasing to note that most African governments are working hard to take corrective and transformative action by adopting the reformative approach. Thus, rehabilitation of offenders is taking centre stage not only in Zimbabwe, but in Africa as a whole,” he said.

Africa Prison Day was launched in Livingstone, Zambia, in 2008. The day is a relevant event, which reflects the Prisons and Correctional Services efforts to transform the mindset of offenders to ensure that they live as law-abiding citizens and better still play a fundamental and developmental role in the communities.

The day started off as the Southern Africa Heads of Correctional Services, which was founded in 1939. The growth of interest in this grouping saw the 8th Central Africa Heads of Correctional Services Conference that was held in Swaziland in 2007 coming up with a resolution to transform it from a regional into a continental body that became known as the African Correctional Services Association. Manicaland prisons have a total of 1 685 inmates, of whom only 26 are females.