The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
AFTER spending six years incarcerated at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Mr John Derks (79) came out a rehabilitated man.
An inner voice, however, kept telling him to do something for ex-convicts after noticing a cycle of reoffending and re-incarceration as some went back to prison a few months after being released. The reason being, they were failing to be reintegrated into the community after committing crimes while also failing to secure formal employment because of a criminal record.
However, in 2008, 22 years after his release from Chikurubi, Mr Derks’ vision came to reality as he opened Second Chance Rehabilitation Ministries in Bulawayo’s Belmont industrial area where he gives former inmates a second shot at normal life by equipping them with life skills that allow them to work for themselves and also to fend for their families.
“This came out of great hardship and suffering. I was incarcerated in 1983 at Chikurubi Maximum Prison for six years. It was during that time that I observed reoffending of many inmates. Inmates were released and excited to go out and within a short period of time, they were back.
“At first, I thought it was normal, but as time went on and I saw this happening quite frequently, I realised that there was something wrong. Surely it was not that people wanted to be in prison, but there was something outside the prison walls that was not aligning, so inmates were coming back because there were no options out there,” he said.
While in prison Mr Derks who declined to reveal what led to his imprisonment said he was encouraging other inmates and preaching to them until a time of his release. Upon his release he said he managed to secure some counseling and pastoral jobs solely because there were people he knew.
“It took those that knew me and my conduct to realise that whatever had got me into prison is not that I was criminally inclined, but circumstances led me there, such things do happen. Often, I say to people, they need to look at inmates differently because any of us has potential to commit crime and circumstances can lead you to do things that you are not supposed to do. We are not there to judge anyone, but we need to be gracious to one another and have compassion.”
Eventually he said he realised that God was preparing him for something great. He said there is a tendency by society to be harsh on ex-convicts which he said takes away efforts of reuniting families.
“We need restorative justice, justice must not be retributive, inflict pain but to help people to take responsibility for what they will have done wrong and you offer a better solution to what will have been done wrong,” he said.
In 2008 he had a revelation.
“God started to knock at my door, reminding me of what I had seen in prison, and also what I could do to change it. I began to think about it and I was discussing these things with my wife and I told her God was calling me to duty at that time, my wife said I had been talking about doing prison ministry but doing nothing towards it and she said I must do something. I then resigned from my job and set up a trust through spiritual guidance. I was led to the right people. I opened Second Chance Rehabilitation Ministries,” he said.
He said the effects of crime are detrimental as families, the State, economy and communities are affected as there is mistrust that then exists between the perpetrator and the people around them. Mr Derks said because of mistrust, failure to restitute victims and embarrassment, life does not get back to normal as former inmates are always under suspicion.
He said these conditions and failure to obtain formal employment push offenders back into crime and eventually prison again. Mr Derks said at Second Chance, they seek to be the mediators between the inmates and families as some are totally rejected when released from prison. He himself struggled to get entry into New Zealand for seven years because of his criminal record which he said placed a lot of stigma on ex-convicts.
“We seek to restore normality and mediate between offenders, their family, the victims and the community at large.
We are the medium that accepts these people as they come out of prison, we also work in conjunction with Zimbabwe Prisons Correctional Service, their rehabilitation team, Chaplaincy and they refer these former offenders to us where we counsel and train them in various skills as we realised that it is better to equip them with skills that enable them to fend for themselves once they are done as opposed to trying to find employment where chances of being employed are close to zero,” he said.
Mr Derks said confession and acceptance are key in the rehabilitation of ex-inmates and that the inmates must have a strong desire to get out of their situation and have a second chance at life on the outside.
He said skills taught at Second Chance were basically home maintenance such as carpentry, painting, sewing, welding, plumbing, electrical work and other home renovations that can be done without one being employed formally.
The former inmates are also being taught computers in order for them to catch up with the world that is moving fast on the technological side.–@NyembeziMu
