An inmates sports jamboree kicked-off at Kamfinsa State Prison ground in Kitwe of Zambia's Copperbelt province with 11 prisons from all nine provinces taking part in the week-long competition, according to Times of Zambia.
The annual commissioner's tournament has the inmates competing in football, netball, volleyball and chess.
Commissioner of Prisons, Gibbie Nawa said when officially flagging-off the tournament, that his command had continued with the sports festival because of the critical role that sport plays in the reformatory process.
He said recreation had been identified as an important factor in reforming inmates and stressed that effective rehabilitation was crucial, not only to prison officers, but to society as well.
This was so because the philosophy behind rehabilitation was to change and correct the behavior of inmates. "The Zambian Prisons Service has responded to the international call that Penal Establishments should no longer focus on punishment, but rather adopt the restorative approach whose emphasis is on maintaining human dignity and reconciliation of offenders," Nawa said.
The tournament, which is being sponsored by the Zambia Prisons Service kicked-off on Monday and has all prisons represented. Football will take centre-stage with 11 inmate-teams sizing each other up to see who walks away with the annual trophy, which is being defended by Mukobeko Medium Prisons from Central Province.
And during the competition, the inmates produced skills that dazzled the spectators with indications that they would be richly entertained during the week.
In the first round of matches being played on round-robin basis, Western edged Northern 1-0 while Maximum beat Katombora Reformatory 3-2 with the champions Medium out-classing North-western 6-0.
The Copperbelt also produced an impressive showing firing five unanswered goals past Eastern while Lusaka and Western had a goalless encounter. The other games saw Northern, who tumbled earlier pick themselves up to beat Luapula 2-1.