ZPCS fails to clear inmates release backlog
THE Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS) is failing to clear a backlog of inmates at Mlondolozi Mental Health Prison in Bulawayo who are due for release because there is no tribunal board to discharge them.
According to the Mental Health Act, a special board and a tribunal board have to assess recommendations by the ZPCS to discharge patients from the special health institutions.
ZPCS psychiatrist, Dr Nemach Mawere said a number of patients at Chikurubi and Mlondolozi health prisons have been waiting to be discharged for several years.
He was speaking after the handover of the rehabilitated Mlondolozi special unit by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday.
Inmates emotionally dramatised through a play how the flawed system was frustrating them.
“We have quite a number of inmates who have been waiting for the tribunal to discharge them from prison. According to the Mental Health Act there are specific people who are supposed to sit on that board, which is entrusted with discharging patients.
“After thorough assessments, the ZPCS discharges deserving patients but this has to be approved by that special board. If the board has not approved the patients have to remain in prison. The tribunal has to include a psychiatric doctor, a magistrate and a senior official in the Ministry of Justice,” said Dr Mawere.
He said there was a challenge in bringing these officials together, resulting in patients waiting too long to be discharged.
“It has taken too long for the tribunal to sit because of attrition of staff. People were coming and going making it difficult to come up with a complete tribunal to set the inmates free.
“It was also difficult to find personnel to work in the tribunal because they have to be special people who are well versed with mental health issues,” said Dr Mawere.
He said the challenge has, however, been addressed with the tribunal expected to start sitting next month.
“The tribunal has gone for more than a year without sitting. It’s now properly constituted according to the Act, meaning that it can now sit and this will happen in April starting with 37 inmates who we have recommended to be discharged from Mlondolozi. It will be sitting every quarter.
“The board looks at the reports produced by the psychiatrists at ZPCS, the mental nurses and affidavits from the family. They look through the information and assess the patients before they discharge them or recommend further rehabilitation,” said Dr Mawere.
He added that sometimes patients are discharged through Ingutsheni Central Hospital, depending on what the tribunal would have recommended.
“When the tribunal sits it assesses a certain number of inmates at a time because they’re many and it’s a thorough process. People are not just let loose to the society. The process has to protect the society as well. Those who are not yet ready to go back to society are taken to Ingutsheni where they’re treated as other patients. It depends on the family dynamics. Sometimes families actually prefer that they stay at the hospital due to various reasons.
“That’s why we have patients who have stayed for more than 30 years at Ingutsheni because the families are not willing to take them back. Mlondolozi and Chikurubi are the two institutions in the country that have facilities for criminal mental patients and give the institution a new look following years of neglect by the cash-strapped Government.”
Those referred to special institutions are regarded as patients and not prisoners, according to ZPCS, which has only one psychiatrist.
Magistrates invoked the Mental Health Act to commit mental patients as most of those referred only needed treatment and not imprisonment.
ICRC, an international humanitarian organisation launched a programme to rehabilitate infrastructure at Mlondolozi turning it into a more spacious, better ventilated and well equipped institution that meets international standards.
Minister of State in Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office Cde Clifford Sibanda handed over the rehabilitated centre.
The event was attended by ICRC head of regional delegation Mr Thomas Merkelbach, the ZPCS acting Commissioner General Moses Chihobvu and senior officials from the Government and other organisations. — @pamelashumba1