Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Fortious Nhambura
6 July 2009
Harare — An arts festival for prison inmates that will the see internees participate in drama, poetry, traditional dances, choral music and artifacts displays has been slated for July 18 at the Mbare Netball Complex.
The festival which is being organised by the Zimbabwe Prison Service in collaboration with religious organisation working with rehabilitation of inmates, will help increase interaction between the inmates, the service and the community.
Acting public relations officer Superintendent Elizabeth Banda said the festival would feature inmates selected from the country's four prison regions would have an opportunity to interact with the public as a way of facilitating the reentry of ex-prison inmates into the society.
The project that is being supported by Zimbabwe Association of Crime rehabilitation organisation, Celebration Ministries International, Prison Ministries Trust of Zimbabwe, Harvest Break Through Ministries among others also seeks make sure the public have an understanding of the country's correctional process.
"Following a realisation that many ex-prison inmates face a lot of stigmatisation when they re-enter the society mainly because of the lack of information and awareness by the community, ZPS in collaboration has been holding these festivals to help educate people on the role of prisons as correctional centres.
"The festival will enable the inmates to exchange expertise and psycho support among themselves, ZPS official and the society. It will enable them to learnt from what is happening in other prison regions in the country," she said.
The festival will also afford the society to see the type of people who would be reintegrated into society and how it can support the ex-inmate individual's reentry into the community.
"This year's festival will be held under theme "Reintegrating the offender a collective responsibility". It is important for everyone to note that rehabilitation and reintegration of the offender is a collective responsibility not just ZPS.
"The aim should be to reintegrate the offender into society without jeopardising what has been learnt by the inmate," she said.
She said the last year's arts festival saw a considerable number of people interacting the inmates with the public getting on the opportunity to see their relatives.
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