BY EVANS MATHANDA
Rehabilitation and re-integration of offenders back into the communities’ remains a challenge to some sections of our society.
The process of bringing back offenders and re-integrating them into the communities where they committed crimes is somehow a difficult situation to both parties.
How best can community members learn to interact with former prisoners without issues of discrimination and how best can the government protect and empower the person harmed?
The government of Zimbabwe should prioritise relationships between the victims of crime and the offenders after they have saved their jail term in full or after being released on presidential pardon.
Even if there are certain reparations between two parties, the government should go an extra mile in making sure that community members have an appreciation of what it takes to reunite with former inmates.
The government seems to be focusing on rehabilitating the offenders, shaping them to be re-integrated back into the communities.
But what about those who are expected to welcome the offenders?
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How are they being assisted to have a different perception about the former prisoners?
The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS), formerly known as the Zimbabwe Prison Services, was renamed for restorative justice.
Unlike retributive justice, restorative justice is an approach to justice in which one of the responses to a crime is to organise a uniting environment between the victim and the offender.
In some countries, this is done with representatives of the wider community.
Restorative justice must protect the dignity of victims and offenders to ensure that there is no discrimination.
However, this is possible when both parties are incorporated during the rehabilitation process of inmates.
It is important to provide all parties with complete information as to the purpose of the process, their rights within the process and the possible outcomes of the process.
By setting vocational training to help the offender learn different skills for use outside the prison for both economic and psychological rehabilitation the government is doing a good job.
However, the community member must be also trained and assisted on how to deal with various problems the individual offender may experience as well as to interact with them.
The process of healing and reconciliation should be an integral part when rehabilitating the offender, the government must also think about the victims of crime and the community as a whole.
Above all, the relationship between the offenders and the victims of crime should not be underestimated in promoting harmony and social solidarity in society.
At least 4 148 prisoners were released last year under the amended amnesty that was proclaimed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who shortened their jail terms.
A batch of 1 680 wasfreed in March and the 2 528 were released in May.
The offenders, who committed different crimes including murder, were pardoned and released like university graduates.
That was a good development since they reunited with their families, but was the community prepared to welcome them and how are they surviving with the same people they offended especially murder cases?
Rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders should not be a “let bygones be bygones” situation, but the government must initiate programs that bring both parties together to create positive peace and security in society.
Of course, forgiveness is sometimes judged based on the type of offence.
The process of healing and reconciliation with someone, who intentionally murdered one member of the society is a difficult situation that is characterised by fear and hate.
The idea of sentencing the offenders is to correct their behaviour by removing them from society and it is also the genesis of the healing process to the victims.
However, life after prison has not been given much attention in Zimbabwe.
It seems the rehabilitation process of offenders focuses more on the offenders than the community as a whole.
Should the government set aside a specific budget for reintegration and rehabilitation of former inmates to ensure a better healing and reconciliation process in society?
A 1995 survey done by Silverman and Vega revealed that United States prisons spend over US$412 million annually on educational and correctional programmes for rehabilitation and re-integration of former prisoners in communities.
Over 50 000 inmates are enrolled in “adult basic education,” which involves learning in such core areas as mathematics and science.
Non-profit making organisations like the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO) were formed to prevent crime and promote rehabilitation and re-integration of offenders in order to have sustainable peace and security in society.
Such organisations are very instrumental in providing support and rehabilitation programmes targeted at ex-offenders and survivors of crime.
ZPCS rehabilitation process is mainly people who are behind the bars which have little or no community interaction but the community members must be the key stakeholders to create a conducive environment for both parties.
Correctional restorative and rehabilitation of offenders is viewed as a humane alternative to retribution and deterrence, though it does not necessarily result in an offender receiving a more lenient penalty than he would have received under a retributive or deterrent philosophy.
Some believe that rehabilitation means that offenders would be freed on probation under some condition or behavioral change.
In other cases, it means that offenders would serve a relatively longer period in custody to undergo treatment or training.
But without incorporation of community members and victims of crime, re-integration and rehabilitation of offenders remains an incomplete development programme.
- Evans Mathanda is a journalist and development practitioner who writes in his personal capacity. For feedback email: [email protected] or call 0719770038 and Twitter @EvansMathanda19
