ZPCS scales up evidence-based drug rehabilitation model
Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
AS the country battles the drug and substance abuse menace, Harare Central Prison is scaling up an evidence-based crime-specific treatment rehabilitation programme introduced in 2023, to rehabilitate inmates struggling with addiction.
At Harare Central Prison, rehabilitation is no longer just about confinement, it is about transformation.
Since 2023, the correctional facility has been implementing an evidence-based treatment model designed to give drug and substance abuse offenders a second chance through structured therapy, skills training and reintegration support.
For 34-year-old Tinotenda Kuture, an aircraft engineer by profession, years of drug addiction led to criminal activity and eventual imprisonment.
“I have taken drugs all over the world. I started with cocaine until I ended up doing crystal meth and codeine. I have tried out things like mushrooms and LSD. So I have pretty much done everything except for heroin. I mean, I have been taking drugs for a long time, and what drugs do is they affect different parts. The first thing they affect is financially they strain relationships, they affect your health, but I think the biggest part that drugs affect are relationships, so we are talking about your friends.
“When you start taking these drugs, it’s self-funded, and then when that money finishes, you start looking for money elsewhere. So you have got people that steal, you’ve got people that borrow, because the moment you take one high and it lowers down, the dopamine lowers down, you want to get the next high. So you’re constantly seeking to get high again. You end up doing silly things to get money so that you can fund that high. I’ve been in rehabilitation, both government and private, but form of rehabilitation, is more on the correctional side.
“If we break it down, what is correction? It’s being given a chance to do something, and then when you have done it wrong, we assess what you have done wrong, and we try to re-fix or do it correctly again. So what this facility does is, there’s a certain time to wake up, there’s a certain time to sleep, we have a timetable for activities. So we go back to basics, and it has a certain timetable. It helps you get back to the normal ways of life. Bedtime is crucial, with drugs like crystal meth and cocaine you don’t sleep so a normal sleeping routine is necessary, if you’re taking your medication, you take your medication on time.
“There are also counselling sessions which are done by the rehabilitation centre. They also do family counselling as well, according to the situation and how they’re arranged. There are also sessions and programmes that are done for different people, so it’s not just for drug people,” he explained.
After multiple failed attempts to quit drugs and stints at various rehabilitation centres, Tinotenda believes the structured correctional treatment he has received at Harare Central Prison has finally set him on a path to recovery.
“So when it comes to quitting drugs, the first part is admitting you have a problem. Many people, when they’re put into a correctional facility or a rehabilitation facility, they don’t want to accept they have a problem.
“That time when I was at rehab, all I thought was I’m going to get out and do whatever I’m going to do and then go back to drugs. I didn’t think that I’m going to stop. That was the difference. So all the resources that were exposed to me, I saw different psychologists, psychiatrists, I took different medication. I didn’t use it to my exposure. That was the difference. I didn’t want to stop. I would lie to my psychologist and my parents,” he added.
The model, offers a structured and scientifically grounded approach to offender rehabilitation, shifting away from punitive incarceration to therapeutic intervention.
“I was a person who could not control his anger. So, upon this treatment, they told me the three stages of anger, which are escalation, expression, and post-expression. So, those three stages have taught me, now I’m just a person,” an inmate, Brian Chiwandandebvu said.
Another inmate, Tadiwanashe Chiwanza weighed in,
“I was convicted of armed robbery and theft. Drugs were the major factors behind my behaviour. I dropped out of school when I was 15, but now in this prison they have managed to rehabilitate and now that the drugs are out of my system I have managed to go back to school so that I reclaim my life.”
The model is designed to address the psychological, behavioural and social factors behind addiction and crime in general.
“We piloted here at Harare Prison about two years ago, where we are administering evidence-based correctional treatment. So by evidence-based correctional treatment, it means that we are actually assessing and determining the underlying causes of criminality, be it substance and drugs use, be it violent offending, sexual offending, and then we are administering the appropriate correctional treatment that’s aimed at addressing those underlying causes. It’s also data-driven. Prior to the administration of this correctional treatment, we actually conducted a survey to determine the number of inmates per category of offending behaviour.
At this institution, we realised that sexual offenders constitute the highest number of inmates. And then followed by drug and substance use. So we prioritised those categories and also trained officers, paraprofessionals, who are now responsible for administering the assessments and correctional treatment programs,” explained Chief Correctional Officer, Ison Ndoro.
With drug and substance abuse threatening to derail the future of countless Zimbabweans, initiatives like these offer a lifeline, not just to inmates, but to entire communities.
