Department of Correctional Services: Workshop on Five-Year Strategic Plan & Budget

Meeting report

Department of Correctional Services: Workshop
The Chairperson stated that the Committee expected the Department to talk to its strategic plan and budget so that the Committee could understand the direction that they were taking. The Committee understood that the budget was a vehicle for implementing the strategic plan and they hoped to see an alignment as they were taken through all the Department's programmes.

Ms Hlengiwe Mkhize, Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, indicated that she would like to hear the Committee’s thoughts on the expectations it had of the Department. She also indicated that there were specific areas that had been designated for her to oversee. The first area was management of development and care, including the programme of rehabilitation and social re-integration. The second area was the establishment of an Awaiting Trial Detainees (ATD) branch within the Department of Correctional Services (DCS or the Department). The third area was interface with the Office of the Inspecting Judge. Lastly, she would of course deputise for the Minister in all other matters related to her office.

Briefing by the Minister of Correctional Services
Hon Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Minister of Correctional Services, tendered her apologies to the Committee for arriving late. She also explained that there was an Acting National Commissioner in attendance. The National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Ms Xolisa Sibeko, had been suspended following reports in the media that she had rented a home at a luxury golf estate in Pretoria, using State funds. A task team had been appointed to investigate these allegations, and its report would be tabled before the Committee. The Minister indicated to the Committee that the preliminary allegations did not augur well for the National Commissioner, but the report could not be tabled until all processes had been completed as required.

The Minister briefed the Committee on some of the challenges faced by the Department. It was currently operating on a deficit of about half a billion rand. This had created problems and there were a number of areas that would suffer. It was a truly difficult situation for the Department as there were vacancies that existed in the organisational structure, but that could not be funded. Both the newly instituted shift system, known as the 7-day establishment, and Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) had been implemented under very difficult circumstances. Although the 7-day establishment was working well in some areas, the Department's agreement with labour unions had encountered problems in some areas. For instance, there was a migration from the administrative career path to security roles at correctional centres, where it was believed that there was a slightly better remuneration package.

The Department's internal audit capacity was well below what was expected of an internal audit committee. The Minister was also concerned that the internal audit committee had shortlisted candidates for the external committee, which seemed to be a conflict of interest. The Minister informed the Committee that shortlisting for senior management posts had been completed and new appointments would soon be made. The position of Chief Financial Officer was difficult to fill considering the availability of a candidate who was well versed in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

The issue of Awaiting Trial Detainees (ATD) had been directed by a review process to set up a branch for ATD in the Department. A task team had been appointed to deal with this issue. The Minister felt that this should not be the sole responsibility of the DCS, but the entire Criminal Justice System (CJS) cluster should take responsibility. The Minister felt that the biggest problem lay with the Department of Justice, since too many young people and persons convicted of minor offences were being incarcerated by the judicial officers, instead of other alternative sentencing being imposed. Another challenge was that Awaiting Trial Detainees were not in uniform, and this had contributed to a high rate of escapes. Despite the human rights concerns about requiring ATDs to wear uniforms, the Minister felt that this would not only address some of the inhumane conditions such as detainees wearing the same clothes day after day, if they were detained for long periods, but also that this would also help to improve security.

The Minister submitted that the high number of juvenile offenders in correctional facilities was another concern. Overcrowding remained a big challenge, because of the revolving nature of correctional services, where the number of persons leaving was constantly replenished by new entrants. The situation of ATDs was further exacerbated by lengthy remands, sometimes of more than two or three years. The Bail Protocol initiative would do little to alleviate overcrowding if accuseds were not tried within a reasonable time, and with respect to those who were denied bail.

The Department had substantial policy review work, starting with a review of the policy on Private Prisons (PPs). The Minister submitted that the current policy had no rational basis. Although it was understandable that private companies could build facilities and provide infrastructure, the Minister questioned the wisdom of allowing them to run programmes of correctional services. She was also concerned about the length of some of the PP contracts and cited an example of one contract that would run for 25 years.

The Minister was concerned about the plight of women prisoners with babies in correctional facilities, and indicated that this was an area that the Department would have to review, working together with the Committee. The amount of money that government was spending on childcare was worrisome. She was also concerned about the conditions under which such children were raised within the facilities.

The Minister concluded her briefing with the submission that human resources posed a serious challenge, and that there was a need to move beyond strategy to the development of systems. Job creation was a priority for the Department but this had been hampered by the challenges resulting from the budget deficit of R500 million. This had resulted in human resources development issues being put on hold. The DCS was an organisation that required a serious turnaround, based on the failures of its past budgeting and inability to anticipate the Department's needs and priorities. The second issue was the serious failure to implement decisions. She said that if the Department had been able to implement decisions, then OSD, for instance, could have been implemented in 2008, rather than July 2009, and the Department would not have faced some of the problems that they now had as a result. Another challenge was posed by the generally very long turnaround times in all areas generally, and the length of time to implement decisions. There was also another challenge of inadequate policy-making and policy-refinement. The Department's current focus was on filling critical vacancies and speeding up processes, so that there were not too many long-drawn suspensions in the Department.

The Minister also expressed her concern about the high rate of alcoholism amongst DCS staff members. Looking at the environment and the conditions under which some of them operated, she could understand why there was such a problem, but the challenge was for the Department to do something about the working conditions of staff members in the DCS, and not just the welfare of inmates in the correctional facilities. There was also a high level of indebtedness of staff within the DCS and this would compromise systems and increase the likelihood of corruption in the Department.

The last matter she wished to note was that of an inmate who was currently detained under hospital guard whilst he underwent an operation, before he would be returned to a correctional facility. She had consulted with Mr Motseki and had been assured that all security measures had been effected to ensure that he did not escape.

Discussion
The Chairperson called upon members of the Committee to hold the issue of the National Commissioner in abeyance, pending the report which would soon be tabled by the Minister before the Committee.

The Chairperson commented that there were unnecessary costs being incurred through unwarranted detention of certain types of Awaiting Trial Detainees. He felt that this money could be better used in other areas.

Mr J Selfe (DA) thanked the Minister for what he termed a refreshingly frank and non-defensive presentation about the state of affairs in correctional services. However, he commented that some of the policies that were being reviewed had already been reviewed, over and over again, without reaching a stage where findings were translated into action. This was a source for frustration for the Committee as it was anxious to see progress.

The Minister responded that she had undertaken the review of the PPs because she had not understood the rationale of the PPs. She was concerned that everything was outsourced, including the operation of correctional programmes. There was no accountability about what was happening in the privately-run correctional facilities, as shown by a recent hunger strike by prisoners at two PPs. If any of those prisoners had died there could have been a public outcry against government.

Mr Selfe proposed that the Minister should consider legislation that could regulate the issue of who should or should not be detained as an ATD and to allow some kind of a review of sentencing to prevent unwarranted incarceration.

Mr Selfe asked for an explanation as to why, eight months after the selection process had been completed, no appointments of senior personnel had been made, and what was causing the delay in such appointments.

The Minister responded that the delay in appointing the Regional Commissioner could have been as result of the timing of the elections in March/April, and the resultant change in administration. The pending investigations with respect to other vacancies meant that these were put on hold until all the issues had been finalised. The Minister expected a report from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) by 17 August 2009.

Mr A Fritz (DA) called for a review of the Department's study leave policy, which he considered excessive compared to other departments in the public service. He supported the idea that ATDs should wear uniforms as a security measure.

Ms W Ngwenya (ANC) thanked the Minister for her briefing. She commented that ATDs did not in fact really fall under the DCS. She asked why a decision could not be taken about this to resolve this matter once and for all by the Committee.

Ms Ngwenya also commented that there was need for further discussion on the issue of mothers with babies. She further agreed with the Minister that there was a need for a review of the length of some of the PP contracts, especially the one lasting 25 years. She submitted that adequate funding had to be made available for the filling of vacancies in the Department. She shared the Minister’s concern about the high rate of alcoholism in the DCS, and expressed the fear that this could have a negative impact on inmates. She made a call for stricter disciplinary measures to curb alcoholism.

Presentation by Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corporate Services: Administration programme
Mr Alfred Tsetsane, Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corporate Services, DCS, provided an overview of all of the sub-programmes within the programme of administration. He provided the Committee with details of the issues in human resources in relation to the Department's overall strategic direction in terms of measurable objectives, strategy, targets, activities and achievements. Mr Tsetsane also gave a presentation on the purpose of administration in the Department and outlined the strategic objectives, strategic priorities and targets to the Committee. He provided a an overview of the key projects that would be undertaken and a highlight of the successes achieved by the Department with respect to some of their strategic objectives and priorities. (See attached document)

Discussion
The Chairperson reminded Members that because this was in the nature of a workshop, they should not only ask questions but also make suggestions.

Mr Selfe asked whether the Kimberley Correctional Centre would be sufficiently staffed when it was eventually opened.

Mr Tsetsane responded that the issue of staff capacity to run the Kimberley facility had been taken care of, and assured the Committee that there would be staff in place to run the Centre when it opened.

Mr Selfe requested clarification with regard to the vacancy rates, pointing out that the Committee was given a figure of 5%, when in the printed version of the presentation there was a figure of 10%. The legacy report had indicated a figure of 5% as well. It was unclear which statistic was accurate.

Mr Tsetsane responded that the targeted vacancy rate had been 5%. However there had been complications with the signing of Resolution 1 of the White Paper. Because there had then been a minimisation of the delegation of functions to regional offices, the DCS was then expected to pay overtime although National Treasury had not provided it with extra funds. A moratorium had therefore been declared on the filling of vacancies, to allocate funds for overtime.

The Chairperson commented that, comparing this to the 2007/08 Annual Report, there were recurrent issues such as inadequate resources and insufficient skills being raised. Some of the targets had been named as targets since 2007 and the Committee wanted to know when real progress would be made.

The Chairperson also made a follow-up to Mr Selfe's question on the vacancy rates in the DCS. He commented that there were no savings on the vacancy rate, since monies allocated for compensation would not have been spent if no vacancies had been filled. The Chairperson asked why the DCS was finding it difficult to fill the vacancies, considering that some of the posts that still remained vacant did not require scarce skills.

Mr Teboho Motseki, Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corrections, DCS, responded to the issue of vacancies that could ordinarily be filled and the issue of savings. He urged the Committee to consider the severity of the problem that the DCS had faced. Extra funding of about half a billion rand was required in order to recoup and generate savings. The implications of this were that there were no extra funds for OSD, and this gap would most likely widen. The consequences of Resolution 1 were being brought to bear on the DCS, which was the reason why the Minister was trying to have the Department moved out of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Forum to the Security Chamber, which would align them with their needs.

The Minister commented that the DCS officials were not quite getting to the point. The moratorium had nothing to do with the OSD, which had only come into effect in July. In fact, the overtime payments had been consuming a huge chunk of the budget. The Department was indeed sitting with a deficit of half a billion rand. However, it was important that the vacancies for senior management must be filled, despite the problems of structural re-alignment since 2003.The main issue was that money which had been allocated to compensation had been used to pay the overtime bill.

Mr Fritz expressed concern about the high rate of absenteeism in the Department, commenting that this seemed to have become a culture. He also asked if there was a report available on the number of injuries sustained by Department officials whilst on duty.

Mr Tsetsane responded that statistics on claims for injury were unavailable at present.

Ms Ngwenya asked whether the implementation of Occupation Specific Dispensation was progressing well in the Department. She asked if the 7 day establishment was being implemented at a national level or whether it was restricted to provinces.

Mr Tsetsane responded that OSD was being implemented nationally, although the exercise was running short of funds.

Mr Fritz asked why the Department was involved in collaborative programmes with other African countries.

Mr Tsetsane responded that the Department had a directive to become involved in initiatives with other African countries in terms of the relationship that government was building, since the DCS had capacity that was lacking in other African countries.

Mr Selfe asked whether the Department could improve the turnaround time for suspensions, and wanted to know if there were any challenges currently being faced in this regard.

Mr Tsetsane responded that the Department was continuously trying to improve the turnaround time for suspensions. The challenge it faced was the nature of the transgressions that could require external investigators, which could delay both suspensions and appeals. The DCS had initiated training of about 500 internal investigators in the past year. Further delays could be occasioned by employees who refused to co-operate with processes such as filling out certain forms.

Presentation by Acting Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corrections on the Role of the Chief Directorate Corporate Services
Mr Manelisi Wolela, Acting Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corrections, DCS, gave an overview of the main attributes of the sub-Directorate of Legal and Special Operations, which was responsible primarily for ensuring that there was effective legal support and services to the Department such as investigation of cases and prevention of fraud for instance. He referred Members to the document attached for full details.

Discussion
The Chairperson noted that the lack of funding was a risk, and asked the Department to explain whether the lists contained matters that could be done or if they represented a “wish list” of what should be done if there was funding.

The Chairperson commented that the Department's communication strategy did not reach and impact upon grass roots communities.

The Deputy Minister submitted that the success of the Department's objectives with respect to policy co-ordination and research depended to a large extent on the information that it received from the correctional centres. She was not sure that there was a strong policy unit in the Department that could provide suitable information for appropriate policy formulation. If no reliable information was available then this created a vicious cycle of constantly “talking broadly” about issues all the time without taking appropriate action. She also commented that targeted or strategic communication had to address the things that people were concerned about. This required packaging information so that it achieved set objectives.

The Chairperson asked, in relation to prevention of fraud and corruption, why the DCS had not a made a single disclosure of interest as was now required by the Public Service Commission (PSC). It was not excusable that there had been no disclosures from senior managers.

The Minister responded that senior managers had indeed complied with the PSC’s requirements, but the Minister had not been provided with information to link the companies mentioned in the disclosures with the ones conducted business dealings with the Department. This information was essential for her to determine whether there were any conflicts of interest, and she still had to receive it.

Mr Selfe asked how much the image turnaround campaign would cost.

Mr Wolela responded that the image turnaround projections were estimated as costing about R30 million over a period of three years. He conceded that innovation and creativity would be required to develop strategies that could work, despite the inadequate financial resources. He further noted that the Department was in a process of cutting costs, although at the same time it had to honour existing obligations inherited from the previous financial periods.

Mr Wolela then commented that there were several resource challenges that the Department faced in attempting to gather information on public perceptions about the DCS. However it was clear that there were many people who did not know about the Department and were confused about its role compared to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Department of Justice. Mr Wolela suggested that a co-ordinated but decentralised strategy would most likely register impact in a more community-based grass roots approach. He suggested that the approach used for the Mandela Day celebrations was a good example of a decentralised strategy to give access to all communities.

Ms Ngwenya requested more information about the parole board’s powers and jurisdiction. She asked whether all correctional centres in all the provinces had parole boards.

Mr Motseki responded that that the number of parole boards was about half the number of correctional facilities nationwide.

The Minister added that resources were a major challenge for the operations of the parole boards, since they had to cover wide areas and required mobility. However, transport was not easily available and there had been corrupt practices involving the abuse of travel allowances, which put further strain on available resources.

Ms Ngwenya asked whether television sets were watched by all inmates, or if this was done according to certain groupings. She wanted to know the nature of the television programmes that were shown to inmates, and in particular whether the programmes were aimed at rehabilitating the offenders by aiming to change their mindset.

Mr Wolela responded that the TV and radio facilities were provided in an ad hoc fashion, to provide programmes of spiritual care, some of which were run by non-governmental organisations, rehabilitation programmes, and motivational programming such as graduation ceremonies to encourage other inmates to take interest in education.

Mr Fritz asked about the collaboration with other African nations, and wanted to know what the costs were for the Department.

Mr Wolela responded that the collaborations with other African countries were initiatives of the United Nations Development Programmes, and were therefore funded by the United Nations. South Africa provided infrastructural support that was lacking in other African countries.

Mr Fritz commented that the continuous replacement of portraits was unnecessary expenditure and this practice could be done away with to save money.

The Deputy Minister commented that a major challenge in budget management was the fact that the inability to manage the budget was often confused with the scarcity of resources. It was important to clearly divide the two issues, in order to achieve better management of the budget.

The Chairperson asked the Minister if the Department had completed its legislative programme. He also asked when the 2008 amendments would be promulgated, and when the Incarceration Framework would be completed.

The Minister responded that the Department was not yet ready with its legislative programme. The Department was currently facing challenges to staff capacity in the legal services section and had only recently recruited Dr Lirette Louw from the Department of Justice, so that she could begin advising the Minister.

Mr Selfe asked for clarification on the issue of inmates choosing the work they wanted to do. He felt that many problems could be averted by giving inmates productive work to do during their time in prison.

The Department referred Mr Selfe to the appropriate legal provisions that outlined the rights of an inmate to choose the type of work that he or she wanted to do, as part of the correctional programme.

Ms Ngwenya submitted that the Committee should not tolerate the issue of gangs in prisons and expressed dismay that there was a de facto recognition of gangs in prisons, which conveyed the wrong message that they were legitimate.

The Minister responded that there was concern in the DCS about the activities of gangs and increasing assaults on DCS members. This was further complicated by policies such as minimum force and human rights considerations, which placed restrictions on the DCS despite increasing security threats.

Presentation by Chief Deputy Commissioner: Development and Care: Personal Development and Care Programme
Ms Subashini Moodley, Chief Deputy Commissioner: Development and Care, briefed the Portfolio Committee on the activities of the Chief Directorate for Personal Development and Care. She defined the concept of personal development, and provided an organogram. The presentation also provided information on the roles and responsibilities of the sub-directorate in terms of skills development; formal education; production workshops and agriculture; sport, recreation, arts and culture. The programme of care was based on the Constitutional standards on the treatment of prisoners and the White Paper on Corrections in South Africa. The programme of care looked at the provision of health care services to offenders, awaiting trial detainees, and babies whose mothers were in prison. It also dealt with provision of needs based services, social services, spiritual care and psychological services, and overall focused on the personal well-being of the offender.

Ms Moodley highlighted the aspects of the programme that presented challenges for the DCS, saying that these needed to be discussed with the Committee. In the area of  psychological services, DCS was experiencing staff shortages, although interventions such as group therapy had helped alleviate some of these problems. The DCS was looking to move away from the focus on a purely individual form of therapy because it lacked sufficient capacity. The Committee was given the data on the vacancy rates in key sectors of the programme such as HIV and AIDS counselling, social services, psychological services work and spiritual care. It was moving away from the environment of only having one denominational group, as had been the case prior to 1994. Primary health care was an area that also posed a challenge for the Department because of shortages in nursing staff, medical practitioners and pharmaceutical staff. The DCS did not have any dieticians to advise kitchen staff on the type of food that needed to be prepared for inmates.

In terms of projects, the DCS was currently looking at the offender rehabilitation path, or the translation of the White Paper on Corrections into practice. Under health care, the DCS was currently exploring the feasibility of outsourcing pharmaceutical services, because it was unable to provide an effective service in this area due to lack of personnel, which was exacerbated by a general shortage of pharmacists, which meant that medication had to be transported from one management area to another, which in turn created delays in inmates getting their medication when it was due. Studies were also under way to consider the feasibility of outsourcing of food services, in the light of discussions at previous Portfolio Committee meetings. The DCS also needed to do a similar study in terms of health services, but were unable to do so because of inadequate funds. Further projects were listed in the attached document.

Discussion
The Chairperson commented that the DCS had continuously lamented about the move away from a development and care bias in the budget. Therefore, he questioned why the DCS found it difficult to reschedule the budget to align it with development and care objectives, pointing out that this lack of alignment meant that the Committee would question the budget in future. He asked if the Department was facing any limitations that made it difficult to re-prioritise, and said that the budget was not only inadequate, but skewed.

Mr Motseki responded that National Treasury had been very sympathetic in making certain allocations in terms of the White Paper. In terms of the current OSD, security took almost two-thirds of the budget. Security threats were increasing and this had resulted in a higher investment in security. It would be possible to re-prioritise the budget, but the larger challenge was human resources, which comprised about 80% of the budget. Change and intervention were driven primarily by people. He was not confident that this could alter.


The Chairperson submitted that there was about R634 million budgeted for facilities, as opposed to 400 million. He asked if that amount could be rolled over if the Minister decided to revisit PPs. There had to be creative and innovative ways for focusing on care and development.

Mr Selfe expressed dissatisfaction with the low numbers of inmates who were in productive labour, which was 3 000 out of approximately 100 000 inmates. He suggested that issues of security would be addressed by productive employment, since inmates who were productively employed would have less time to spend plotting escapes and engaging in gang related activities. Productive employment would also reduce recidivism, by making prison a place to acquire new skills that would be of use on release.

Ms Ngwenya commented that the spiritual care policy faced challenges in terms of promoting religious diversity, since most spiritual care programmes were dominated by certain religious groups to the exclusion of others.

Ms Ngwenya also commented that it would be a waste of funding to train and equip inmates with skills if, upon their release, they were in any event not able to get a job because of their criminal record.

Mr Fritz suggested that structured programmes would take away idleness, and there were many constructive activities that could be implemented.

The Chairperson asked why the DCS had offender plans only for people sentenced to two years and more imprisonment, since other inmates with lesser sentences could also benefit.

The Deputy Minister commented that the majority of people in the DCS had been unprepared for change, and remained traditional in their approach. There was indeed a need to prepare officials for the new structure, and to look at concrete ways of translating the development and care objectives in the strategic plan into realisable programmes in the budget. She did not dispute what the Committee suggested needed to be done.

The Minister said that the main problem with the PPs was that since most of the correctional programmes were run by foreigners, this raised concerns about security. However the real challenge was in finding where government could take over, since security had to be a national responsibility.

The Chairperson commented that this was an area that required improvement, otherwise the Committee would exercise its prerogative to withhold the passing of the budget, or would insist that it only be passed conditionally as a way of forcing change and forcing the Department to remain accountable to people. There was a need for a total mind shift.

Presentation on Security, Corrections, Social Re-integration and Facilities
Mr Motseki clustered together the remaining presentations on corrections, social re-integration, security and facilities. The functions of the security programme were explained to the Committee. Mr Motseki highlighted the technological developments that were taking place to enhance security at correctional facilities, and with respect to data management and the protection of privacy in the DCS. He informed the Committee about some of the threats to correctional facilities, such as poor management of security -resulting in breaches such as escapes- assaults and natural deaths, idleness by inmates, resulting in the proliferation of gangs, the emergence of syndicates amongst awaiting trial detainees who plotted prison breaks, the changing profile of inmates, who were becoming younger and were often involved in violent syndicate crimes, and poor management of and sharing of information within DCS and with other agencies. The DCS had several key strategies to improve security, including an OSD dispensation to present opportunity for focused security personnel and other capacity development measures. [See document for further details]

The programme on corrections focused on addressing and correcting the offending behavior of sentenced persons. The core functions of this programme were to develop policy, policy procedures, tools and programmes for the management and correction of offenders; to comprehensively assess offenders to determine their risk and needs profile, security classification and correction sentence plan; to compile a national offender population profile bi-annually; to develop and implement needs-based correctional programmes aimed at targeting offending behavior and facilitation of the implementation of these programmes; and to monitor the administration of correctional centres. He highlighted the correctional tools that were used by the DCS, as well as the correctional programmes for different types of offenders, including those with substance addictions, sexual offending behavior and violent and aggressive behavior.

The programme on social re-integration referred to the process of facilitating acceptance and effective re-adjustment of offenders into the community. [See document for full details]

Mr Motseki also explained to the Committee the functions of facilities and the policy framework for facilities in terms of the requirements of the White Paper for a change of design to allow for rehabilitation. [See document for full details]

Discussion
Ms Ngwenya commented that there was a need for improvement in terms of the way facilities were built. She suggested that the Committee had to be consulted before facilities were built so that they could interrogate the architectural designs as opposed to reacting to problems after the facilities had already been built.  She also suggested that part of the improvements should involve gang members being separated from each other and transferred to other facilities.

Ms Ngwenya commented that the parole boards appeared to be like a pilot project that the DCS was trying out to see how it would work, since officials on the board were on temporary contracts, and seemingly that the salary offered was insufficient even to afford a car, despite the need for these officials to travel often.

 The Deputy Minister submitted that parole boards were an important component of the DCS’s work but it was difficult to determine how to shift resources from the budget. There were numerous parolees who were not processed for logistical reasons, and the question was how to shift the budget to capacitate the parole boards.

The Deputy Minister also commented on the parole issue that release on medical grounds was one of the things that was difficult to measure. The DCS had resolved to hire specialists to determine the severity of chronic illnesses, and to consider the threat that such a person would pose to society if released.

Mr Fritz asked if there might be challenges around security as a result of technological issues. He was concerned about the high amount of contraband that was brought into prisons, citing an example at Pollsmoor where 85 cell phones had recently been confiscated from inmates.

Mr Motseki responded that security was weakest during certain periods in the afternoon, because of the high volumes of people passing through security check points. The DCS had not been able to accurately measure contraband, since officials were reluctant to report contraband items when they did find them, fearing that this would reflect badly on their ability to perform their duties.

The Chairperson commented that ideally people who were sentenced to less than two years should not be in prison.

The Chairperson asked whether there was a minimum standard in terms of architecture of prisons.

Mr Motseki responded that there was an architectural model developed in 2003 that emphasised all the requirements as set out in the White Paper.
 
The Chairperson concluded the workshop by commenting that the budget had not adequately spoken to the issues raised in the strategic plan and White Paper, and there was an urgent need for re-alignment. The filling of vacancies in the DCS had to be done immediately. In the short to medium term, the DCS must complete its legislative review. In the long term it must complete its social responsibility, development and care objectives.