The Family Week programme ended yesterday with a visit to Mutare Prison Farm by the Manicaland Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Honourable Advocate Misheck Mugadza, who commended efforts to transform correctional facilities into centres of rehabilitation and reintegration.
Hon. Mugadza was received by Officer Commanding Manicaland Province, Commissioner Spetosomusa Chinobva. He toured the facility and met inmates and their relatives.
Addressing the gathering, he said the correctional system has shifted from punishment to rehabilitation.
“Our prisons are now different from those of the colonial era. Inmates are being rehabilitated. These are no longer prisons, but correctional facilities focused on reforming and reintegrating inmates,” he said.
He thanked President Cde Dr Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and ZPCS Commissioner-General Dr Moses CN Chihobvu for initiatives such as Family Week, and noted the impact of the Presidential Amnesty granted in March 2026.
“A lot of you benefited from the Presidential Amnesty. For those who were not visited today, do not worry – your visitors will come during the next Family Week programme,” he said.
Hon. Mugadza also commended skills training and agricultural production at the prison, including high maize yields.
Family Week aims to strengthen family ties, provide emotional support and prepare inmates for reintegration. Authorities say contact with relatives reduces isolation and improves post-release adjustment.
Relatives welcomed the programme. Brenda Kukura said it allowed her to share personal issues with her father and receive advice.
“I noticed that inmates are being taught many skills, some of which people outside cannot do. This shows that prisons are becoming homes of reform, not places of suffering,” she said.
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