Reflections on Recidivism and the Implications on Communities in Less Developed Countries: A Case of Criminals in Zimbabwe
Author : Dr. Misheck Chingozha P and Chingozha Yeyukai
Abstract :
Levels of crime and criminality have reached unprecedented levels in Zimbabwe at the moment. The prisons are overwhelmed and efforts are being pursued to decongest them as well as considering the open prison concept. The Harare Central prison for instance has a daily holding capacity of 1470 yet on average it is accommodating more than this figure on daily basis. The efforts to promote hands on skills to facilitate reintegration of offenders into the main stream society are failing to sufficiently rehabilitate the offenders. Some of the offenders have been seen disparaging the efforts to take up skills training while they are serving their prison sentences for crimes committed. The study premised on the social learning theory, adopted qualitative approach on a sample drawn from the local prisons within Harare, Mashonaland West and Midlands provinces. The study used interviews to collect data from this sample of 60 respondents. Of these respondents 52 were inmates while 8 were prison officers. The study concluded that recidivism is being fueled by the non-performance of the economy, failure by the society to reintegrate offenders, lack of sufficient resources to provide adequate training to prisoners while in prison. Consequently the study recommends that the prisoners must be sufficiently segregated from the point of entry so that first offenders are not exposed to hard core criminals. Government should also avail resources to facilitate intensive training of prison officers and inmates.
Keywords :
Recidivism, crime, criminals, infrastructure vandalism, prison, Zimbabwe
