Community Service in Practice

The documents contained herein are essentially those that have been developed by the Zimbabwe National Committee on Community Service (ZNCCS) since the introduction of the Community Service scheme in 1994. Work and studies on alternatives to custody in Zimbabwe began in 1992. In 1994, thanks to the financial support of the European Union and the British government, through Penal Reform International (PRI), Zimbabwe instituted a Community Service scheme. The Zimbabwe experience proved to be successful: in August 1997, when the scheme was officially transferred from PRI to the Zimbabwean government, more than 16 000 persons had been sentenced to Community Service as an alternative to custody. The Zimbabwe model has successfully shown how to avoid some of the pitfalls and problems common to all jurisdictions and to manage the scheme in a way that is both highly effective in terms of cost to government and benefit to the community. (excerpt, document created by Penal Reform International)

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