Our mission

We are a newly formed group of multi-professional Zimbabwean women.
Our mission is to promote, encourage and advocate for kindness towards and the overall wellbeing of women and girls who end up involved in the criminal justice system; whether they are awaiting trial or have been convicted and are serving their sentences in our prison system. It is our greatest wish to encourage society at large to perceive offenders as
people in need of many forms of help and not to write them off merely as
‘criminals’. We share the views of the prison system that it is more
important to rehabilitate offenders than just to punish and release. We are
optimistic that it will make a difference to many female offenders if they
feel accepted and supported by other people from all walks of life. It is our
vision that such acceptance will be a source of hope and a deterrent to
re-offending.

We are private citizens who wish to complement government efforts to
cater for the needs of these women who we recognize as our sisters,
daughters, nieces, aunties, mothers and grandmothers. We feel called to
learn how we can assist the government’s efforts in trying to rehabilitate
these ladies.

Collective approach to assisting female offenders

We have come to recognize that strong public and prison relationships are
a potentially viable solution to the rehabilitative drive that is within the Zimbabwe Prison Correctional Services (ZPCS)who have been very receptive us. As such, we want to encourage other well-meaning people (private and corporate) to engage with the ZPCS to
see how they can play their own part, within their own strengths, to
support female offenders. Our biggest assets, as an organization, are our
passion and faith. Our resources are very limited but that will not deter us
from continuing to try.

We have learnt very quickly that the journey in the criminal justice system doesn’t just involve the custodial period. All the stages during potential offenders’ journey could use some input from everyone.

Stages through the offender’s journey

We have identified that there are several stages along the path from
offence to rehabilitation. These stages are firstly, the Pre-offending stage,
then the Offending and Arrest stage, the Judicial processes stage,
Confinement and Rehabilitation stage and then the Life After confinement
or other sentence (immediate and short term). We hope that committed
associates can contribute to supporting offenders through these different
stages according to their own strengths and capacities.

Pre-offending stage

With respect to the pre-offending stage, we wish to work in the community
with ‘at risk’ girls and women as defined by social experts in order to curb
offending. Lack of basic education, poverty, poor unaddressed mental
health, childhood marriages and domestic violence are among the factors
often identified as placing people on the course to offending.

Offending and arrest stage

We are learning about the offending and arrest stage and how the same
factors listed above affect outcomes for female offenders. We hope to
garner support from many professional disciplines such as social work and
the legal fraternity to support female offenders at this stage. It is our hope
that all accused persons get access to legal representation despite their
level of income. We hope to increase education of suspects on this process
as well.

Custodial period

We have many aspirations in relation to the custodial period. We continue
to learn a lot and are conscious that the curve is steep. We envision more
partnership links being created to help impart skills and nurture talents that
will allow self-reliance inside and outside the prison system. We hope to be
able to facilitate workshops for numerous vocational skills within the
performing arts and crafts, culinary skills, design and tailoring, as well as
fitness and exercise. We have aspirations for infrastructural improvements
such as conference rooms, worshipping space and so forth. We hope to
see thriving industrial workshops at the facility and to make agriculture both
attractive and productive for everyone’s benefit. We will explore how strong
links can be forged for economic exchanges between the local community
and the prison.
We are also passionate about the welfare of the children who have to live
with their mothers within the prison system. We fantasize about the
existence of a multi-functional learning Centre with a state-of-the-art library
and classrooms.

Transition and re-integration back into the society

The transition from confinement or other sentence back into the community
is also of interest to us. We hope to explore support for this stage through
community support and integration.

In all these phases, we believe in the
value of measuring outcomes and creating an evidence base to support
policies and practices. We will look to the academic community to support
us with metrics on measurable outcomes at different levels.

Prison staff wellness

We recognize that the prison staff are very valuable partners in anything
that happens at this facility. We will constantly be looking for ways to
support their well-being alongside the provision of their employer. It is our
aim that these activities, skills and spaces will benefit the staff as well.