5 minute read
PERSPECTIVES ON PRISONERS with Meunajo Tjiroze
PERSPECTIVES ON PRISONERS
WITH MEUNAJO TJIROZE
With a background as counsellor to offenders at Namibia Correctional Service, Meunajo Tjiroze is now the technical director at the Office of the First Lady. She has a passion for social transformation after experiencing for herself the difficulties faced by so many in society.
Meunajo was born in exile to political activist parents. Her mother, who in Meunajo’s early life was a housekeeper, instilled in her daughter a strong sense of empathy. Having navigated the difficulties of being an outsider who could not speak the native languages, as well as being one of the first black children in a previously ‘white’ school, Meunajo later signed up for a career in medicine, believing that it would provide the best financial security for her family. Psychology was, however, the only part of the field that resonated with her, which lead to her becoming a clinical psychologist.
Meunajo’s desire to contribute to the equitable treatment of others has been fuelled by the hardships that she and many people in Namibia have endured. Today, working at the Office of the First Lady, she is flying high.
“I worked at a nonprofit while doing my graduate studies in clinical psychology, and then I transitioned to the Correctional Service. A lot of people were asking me, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re such a tiny little woman, what are you going to be doing in that space? Aren’t you afraid of working with those guys?’
“People have a certain perception about the people who end up in prison. So I took the opportunity, feeling that it was also an opportunity for me to get to work with people no one else wants to work with, not even family, because they have committed such atrocious offences that have caused deep trauma for others.
“But I’ve always believed – and this was reinforced by Desmond Tutu – that when you treat someone as subhuman, then they don’t see the possibility to change and they don’t see the moral responsibility they have.
“It was a challenging time because the Correctional Service was also going through a transition. The system that had existed before then was the apartheid system, and rehabilitation was non-existent. So General Shikongo hired people with backgrounds in social work and psychology, and a lot of resources were invested to ensure that people had a possibility to change.
“People who are sentenced are sentenced for a determined period of time, and then they’re going to join society, join our families’ systems. We have to make sure that we target the risks – address problematic patterns of thinking based on entrenched beliefs that lead to violence or present some kind of consequence to society.
“Rehabilitation has a very targeted approach, especially how the Correctional Services in Namibia do it. It’s evidence based, so it’s been shown to work. It’s been proven to work in other settings across the globe.
“I had a conversation with a gentleman – he was in his mid-fifties and he stole this goat because he just wanted meat, he was tired of having pap every day. So we look at developing vocational skills, educational skills that a lot of times unfortunately people do not have access to outside of Correctional facilities. For the first time, they are able to acquire a skill and this gentleman is an example. He may not have understood the consequences to that farmer, but we were able to help him understand the moral responsibility that he has, and he did apologise to the person he had wronged. So we also try to bring restorative justice, to link people up with the people that they’ve wronged – and you’d be surprised at the immense remorse that a lot offenders sit with.
“Of course you’ll find a very small proportion of the population that will be callous about their actions and not care, but that’s because of deeply entrenched mental-health conditions, such as psychopathy. There, the sentences are longer to allow for the possibility of giving that person time for change if they want to make use of it. Some of them don’t, and that is a choice that they make, but there are many who are willing to make a change. I think they really appreciate it when someone reaches out, when someone recognises the humanity in them.
“We are so quick to judge, but we are not looking at the circumstance that would drive somebody to this place, because it’s damage that creates more damage.
“I continue to have these incredible opportunities. I’m not quite sure how they come about, because I think there’s nothing particularly unique about me. I think I’ve just had incredible opportunities in life.
“I’ve had this opportunity within the Office of the First Lady. I’m the technical director. I’ve always worked in the treatment space, whether it’s working with women who were abused or working with men who have themselves been abused and became abusers, and so now I get the opportunity to work on the prevention side. How can we ensure that individuals don’t end up following a path where they’re either exposed to abuse or they themselves become abusers?
“So, we drive an anti-violence campaign. Violence prevention isn’t just something out there that the police needs to take care of or someone external needs to take care of. We must be part of the change. We have to see what we can do practically on the ground to ensure that children don’t grow up and commit violent offences or themselves become victims of violence. How can we engage with communities, to reduce the levels of violence that we’re going to see in ten or twenty years?
“We really want communities to take ownership of this, and so one of the things that you can do is follow us on our different social media platforms. We are asking people to pledge to commit to strategies which could prevent violence in our communities. When someone tells you that they’ve been a victim of violence, believe them. As parents we should teach our children ways of resolving conflict without resorting to violence. So we ask people to get in touch with us through our social media platforms and sign the pledge, stand together with us to say that violence is not a normal behaviour in our society.”
For more about the #BreakFree Anti-Violence campaign, take a look at the Facebook page: BreakFree From Violence. To sign a pledge of nonviolence, visit the website:
