The Sunday Mail
Howdy folks!
A story is told in the Bible of a woman who lived a sinful life. Upon learning that Jesus was in town, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet.
Seeing the heavy load of sin she was carrying, Jesus simply said: “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:48)
The woman must have been elated as Jesus explained, “Her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” (Luke 7:47)
Twenty-five-year-old Mosline Chakamufuna must be in seventh heaven right now. Hers was apparently a vacation to jail.
Barely two weeks after being convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison, she is already out!
She managed to cheat the other 518 weeks she was supposed to spend behind bars, thanks to the clemency of President Mugabe.
The President granted a full remission of remaining prison terms to all female inmates regardless of offences committed, with the exception of those facing life imprisonment or capital punishment.
This was necessary, considering how overpopulated our correctional facilities are. Correctional facilities were hitherto holding circa 3 000 inmates in excess of their capacity of 17 000.
Should it now be business as usual for Mosline and the thousands of other female prisoners who have been released from prison before their terms ended? They may have been freed from prison, but they still have to serve their full terms when it comes to correction.
Do you think that the woman who was forgiven by Jesus continued with her usual ways?
While accepting the reality that some of the women were not yet fully rehabilitated, as they had just begun serving their sentences, we should also empower them to fully rehabilitate while in society, and create conducive environments that can abet and catalyse that process.
Society has an important role to play in ensuring concrete safety nets are created for them to have a soft landing.
The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services is responsible for protecting society from criminals through incarceration and rehabilitation of convicted persons and their reintegration into society, while exercising safe, secure and humane control.
But they also need to be adequately resourced for them to play that role.
At the 12th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice held in Brazil in 2010, the then Attorney-General, Mr Johannes Tomana, said: “Whilst the legislation and international norms are our guiding principles in the treatment of prisoners, the effectiveness of these provisions rest on the availability of adequate resources.”
And a report by the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights et al established that poor budgetary allocations to prisons have severely affected rehabilitation of offenders.
This was also confirmed by ZPCS Deputy Commissioner (Rehabilitation) Rhodes Moyo last year when he said if they were to feed each prisoner standard food worth US$2 per person, they required US$1,7 million monthly. This against a monthly budgetary allocation of about US$650 000 from Government!
From the above we cannot deny that resources are a challenge to ZPCS, just as our national fiscus is also facing resource challenges.
And this lack of adequate budgetary support might also affect the proper implementation of rehabilitation programmes such as skills training and academic education.
No meaningful rehabilitation happens when basics such as food are not there.
So, if the prison environment is not going to foster effective correction, then society should be given that role.
But the pardoned people should also be ready to “finish their sentences” whilst outside.
By this, I mean they should go through the entire rehabilitation process that they were supposed to go through in terms of capacity building, counselling and other forms of empowerment.
For the avoidance of doubt, here I am not talking about hard labour or any other punitive action.
Otherwise, without measures to help these women, they might be left with no choice, but to return to their old criminal tendencies, and soon find themselves back behind bars.
We have already seen that happening.
In 2014, President Mugabe granted amnesty to 3 129 prisoners, but as much as 62 of them were back behind bars within three months on fresh criminal charges.
Ten of them were women.
Most people coming out of prison face economic hardships as they strive to make ends meet. If not supported adequately, their freedom might be short-lived.
Society is, therefore, called upon to help these women finish their sentences with all the necessary support they need.
We have already shown that we can do it, if the Kuwait issue is anything to go by.
The corporate sector, non-governmental organisations and individuals have been coming through with scholarships, loans and other forms of support to help the victims.
What should be noted is that the pardon granted to all the beneficiaries does not erase the sentences set aside on condition of good behaviour or not committing similar offences within specific periods.
If they are to breach those conditions by committing similar crimes out of desperation, then those sentences set aside will be placed on their shoulders again.
This is why I emphasise that these women are still to finish their sentences for the respective periods they were slapped with. The onus is also on society to help them reform and cultivate good behaviours and conduct that fits into the dictates of societal norms.
The search for solutions for prisoners still behind bars should not end as even if we remain with an optimum prison population, we will still have deplorable prison infrastructure.
If a post-1980 Zimbabwean is still condemned to serve his/her sentence in the same prison infrastructure that Smith used to punish our liberators, then we can clearly see that there is ample room for improvement.
Otherwise, there is nothing “correctional” about being lodged in a remand cell with a bunch of other inmates using a bucket as their toilet, in the same room where they are supposed to be sleeping and eating their food.
It is an effective way of creating a good criminal.
Later folks!
