By KASONDE KASONDE –

FINISH Ambassador to Zambia Timo Olkkonem says addressing the challenges faced by the criminal justice system in Zambia requires a multi-faceted approach.
Mr Olkkonem said addressing the root causes of crime was one strategy towards reducing high congestion in detention facilities.
He was speaking in Kabwe yesterday at Mukobeko Maximum Prison during the donation of skills training tools and equipment by the embassy in partnership with the Prisoners’ Future Foundation (PFF).
Mr Olkkonem said empowering prisoners with skills would foster reintegration of prisoners once they were released from jail.
Mr Olkkonem said the embassy had been partnering with PFF for several years through the Fund for Local Cooperation (FLC) for the benefit of the inmates and had provided material support towards workshop refurbishment, training of lecturers and vocational training of prisoners.
“In the previous funding phase, 115 inmates who were sponsored sat for their final examinations and passed while in the current phase we will see the refurbishment and training activities being expanded. I hope that the new support will build upon and continue the successes we have seen in the past,” Mr Olkkonem said.
He thanked the PFF board and management for services rendered and said that the work could not be done without a cooperative counterpart.
Mr Olkkonem commended the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Zambia Prison Service for their collaboration with non-governmental organisations for the benefit of the prisoners’ improved conditions and education.
PFF executive director Geoffrey Muyamba said the equipment included building, plastering, auto mechanic, tailoring, power electric and bicycle repairing amounting to K183,000.
This was meant to supplement the Government efforts in trying to rehabilitate inmates.
Mr Muyamba said prisoners who acquired training skills could easily reintegrate once they left prisons and reduced on incidences of breaking the law.
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Gerry Chanda said the role of correctional systems was prisoner management.
Colonel Chanda said it involved processes of reception, classification, treatment and care, as well as life-support programming and effective social reintegration of prisoners in the community.
He said rehabilitation should be the central focus and primary objective of any criminal justice system that hoped to uphold the rule of law, and that social reintegration could only be achieved if the community created an enabling environment for offenders’ rehabilitation.