First Lady encourages positivity
22 Dec 2024
Adopting and maintaining a positive outlook of life is vital to the success of character moulding programmes that inmates undergo during their stay in prison.
During a visit to Ghanzi state prison recently, First Lady Kaone Boko appealed to inmates to not view their prison sentences as some sort of inhuman treatment, but rather to embrace them as an opportunity to remodel and re-purpose their lives in preparation for their eventual re-integration into society.
Ms Boko encouraged them to understand that despite their incarceration, they remained important members of the society like everybody else, hence they should prepare in earnest to assume their roles at family, community and national levels.
“All these programmes are intended to help you reconnect with others and generally find your way back into the wider society once you leave here,” she said.
She implored prisoners to fully embrace the different character moulding programmes that they were exposed to, citing among those the positive parenting programme, the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) perpetrators’ programme, the assertiveness training as well as the stress and anger management programmes.
Ms Boko hailed the success of the Botswana Prison Service’s Offender Reintegration Programme. Pegging its success at 98 per cent, she said out of 1 233 former prisoners who had gone through the programme, only 28 had re-offended.
“In Ghanzi alone, the community re-integration committee has 28 ex-offenders, none of whom has re-offended. This shows how ready Batswana are to embrace you once you have completed your sentences,” she said.
Ms Boko further commended the Botswana Prison Service for its video visitation programme, saying it had brought inmates closer to family and loved ones thereby lessening the sense of social detachment that the lack of physical visits often dealt upon prisoners.
Assistant Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Mr Augustine Nyatanga also paid homage to character moulding programmes, describing them as the soul of all efforts aimed at successfully rehabilitating offenders prior to releasing back into society.
Mr Nyatanga thus appealed to all stakeholders, with inmates at the forefront, to collaboratively work towards guaranteeing the success of the programmes.
Commissioner of Prisons Mr Anthony Mokento implored the 151 inmates at Ghanzi prison to spend their time at the facility readying themselves for life outside prison, where he said they would be expected to resume their familial and societal roles as brothers, fathers and uncles. Mr Mokento said Ms Boko’s visit was symbolic of how much society still valued them.
“A prison sentence does not make you sub-human, despite your stay here you remain an important part of society,” he said, noting that the First Lady’s visit was testament of the fact that society and its leadership had them in their thoughts at all times.
An inmate, Mr Keolebogile Masuga acknowledged the work that Botswana Prison Service put into rehabilitating offenders, saying the department was doing the most in preparing them for life outside of prison.
Mr Masuga however, requested that offenders held in prison for GBV-related offences be also made eligible for presidential pardon, saying they were currently excluded from benefitting from the dispensation. Ends
Source : BOPA
Author : Keonee Majoto
Location : Ghanzi
Event : tour
Date : 22 Dec 2024
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