30 Nov 2014

The trend worldwide is not only to focus on punishment of offenders, but to emphasise rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners after release.

Addressing senior command officers of the Botswana Prisons Services, Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi said it was incumbent upon the prison leadership to continuously come up with innovative strategies on rehabilitation of prisoners.

He said that his ministry was working on a number of initiatives such as the development of a rehabilitation policy and a sentencing policy including alternatives to imprisonment and that these policies are being developed with the assistance of a consultant from the Commonwealth Secretariat.

“Once these policies are in place, all senior officers will be charged with the responsibility of implementing them,” he said, calling upon all prison officers to make every effort to treat prisoners in a manner that would foster their rehabilitation.

He urged officers to avoid situations where they could be seen to be cooperating with prisoners by way of smuggling undesirable items into prison facilities as this would compromise the safety and security of staff and inmates.

On issues of BPS rehabilitating prisoners through education, Mr Kgathi said that 104 prisoners have sat for examinations at primary, junior and secondary school levels, adding that extending educational opportunities to prisoners would enhance their ability to reintegrate them into the society upon their release.

He said that this also lessens the likelihood of having repeat offenders.

Regarding the issue of financial management, Mr Kgathi urged all senior officers to expedite timely delivery of development projects, all pre-contract works and approved development projects such as identification of land, Environmental Impact Assessment, drawings and sourcing of supplies.

He said all of the above must be done ahead of every financial year, adding that failure to do so would affect the overall performance in the delivery of projects on time and within budget.

For his part, Commissioner of Prisons, Mr Silas Motlalekgosi said that the starting point of every achievement was desire and that they were achieving more with little resources.

He said that the officers have a strong desire of turning the prison service in to a formidable force. ENDS