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Community Service in Practice

Author: Penal Reform International
Date: 1997
Size: 101 pages (388 KB)

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Summary

What is the best way to implement a Community Service scheme? How can the common pitfalls be avoided? This study by Penal Reform International looks at the implementation of community service in Zimbabwe. It shows how the scheme can be managed in a way that is both highly effective in terms of cost to government and benefit to the community.

In 1994, Zimbabwe instituted a Community Service scheme. Zimbabwe’s experience proved to be successful: in August 1997, when the scheme was officially transferred to the Zimbabwean government, more than 16,000 people had been sentenced to community service as an alternative to custody. The Community Service scheme has won the support of an initially hostile general public within Zimbabwe and attracted considerable interest internationally. As a result, a number of African countries in the sub- region have established their own Community Service Schemes based on the Zimbabwe model, but adapted to suit their own context. This study is comprised of documents that were gathered on the occasion of the International Conference on Community Service in Africa, which took place on 24-28 November 1997 in Kadoma, Zimbabwe. The basic principles of community service (including its purpose, nature, appropriateness and effectiveness) support the culture to develop a scheme that will provide the court with a viable option for the treatment of offenders.

Internationally, community service has been proven to be an effective, efficient and economic method of dealing with the offender. However, in applying it to the Zimbabwe criminal justice system, it must be remembered that this approach is not new. The study found the following key features of the situation in Zimbabwe:

• Custody as a reaction to offending was a phenomenon imposed during the colonial era
• Prior to that, community service and reparation were employed as the societal response to criminality
• Community service therefore reflects traditional justice, far more than incarcerating those who could be rehabilitated
• It represents sentencing within a framework of national interest and cultural integrity.

The report found that several policy factors contributed to the success of the community service scheme in Zimbabwe. These include the following:

• Political willingness to have and actively support a Community Service System
• Involvement and co-operation of all relevant ministries at a high level
• A reasonably efficient and responsive court structure countrywide and the commitment of provincial and resident magistrates countrywide to promote the system actively
• Ability to form district committees nationwide. These amalgamate governmental and non-governmental organisations with a willingness and ability to implement the central policies
• Commitment of the Executive Committee to ensure that all funds are honestly expended on the programme
• Effective use of the media in providing positive publicity at appropriate and opportune times.

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Source: Penal Reform International 1997, 'Community Service in Practice', paper for the All Africa Conference, Zimbabwe
Author: David Biggs , d-biggs@dfid.gov.uk
Penal Reform International (PRI), http://www.penalreform.org
Organisation: Penal Reform International (PRI), http://www.penalreform.org