Correctional Services State of Affairs: briefing by the department

Meeting report

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
22 October 2002
CORRECTIONAL SERVICES STATE OF AFFAIRS: BRIEFING BY THE DEPARTMENT

Chairperson: Mr N B Mashimbye (ANC)

Documents Handed Out:
Briefing by Department on the State of the Department of Correctional Services

Note: The Mvelephanda Strategic Plan document will be available on the Department of Correctional Services website at the end of October 2002

SUMMARY
The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) made a presentation on the strategic re-direction of the Department as contained in their new policy document called the Mvelephanda Strategic Plan. This is aimed at restructuring the Department and prisons towards a culture of restorative justice. They pointed out that the biggest challenges were severe overcrowding, corruption, criminal activity by Correctional Services members and inappropriately trained staff.

MINUTES
State of Department briefing:
Mr Linda Mti, Commissioner: Department of Correctional Services, noted that the briefing document to be relied on had been circulated the previous day and he assumed that it had been read. He continued that as regards the new uniforms some of the department members were wearing, they would make another presentation at a later stage. He explained further that the proposal to change the uniforms had been made to the Minister the previous week.

The Chair suggested that documents be sent at least a week before a meeting. The document had arrived late the previous day and therefore he had not had the opportunity to read it.

Mr Mti took full responsibility for the late documents and apologised accordingly. He outlined the direction the DCS presentation would take (see document for full briefing).

Ms Jabu Sishuba, the Deputy Commissioner: Development Programs, pointed out that a strategic shift was needed in order to change the general perception that prisons were universities of crime rather than effective rehabilitation centres. She outlined the Mvelaphanda Strategic Plan which was to realign Correctional Services for rehabilitation. The department's philosophy is rehabilitation and this is the umbrella under which all its activities must fall.

She stated that the objectives of Correctional Services - and every member of Correctional Services is responsible for this - is for an offender to leave prison owning values as enshrined in the Constitution, being an asset to society and being a law-abiding citizen. Every individual has potential to change. Every unit within Correctional Services will have to define its role to show what it does to achieve these objectives.

The Department is looking to move away from punitive to rehabilitative ways of dealing with prisoners. The word prisoner is itself controversial. The proposed name for prisons is Correctional Facilities but this is still being debated.

Other comments made by Ms Sishuba were:
Security: This involves security within the prison as between prisoners, prisoners and official. This does not only refer to physical security but also emotional security (e.g. an insane person poses a danger to others), and health security (e.g. issue of contagious diseases)

Maintenance: This involves the provision of basic needs of prisoners, protection of their human rights. This can also be spiritual care, family links.

Correction: Move away from assuming that if an offender is skilled e.g. an advocate, they do not need correction. A person comes in as an offender and it is that behaviour that must be addressed. Their values must be renewed.

Development: This initials the provision of opportunity to develop skills, education. Also involves the development of the person to be able to say no to crime.

Facilities: The environment is very important because this can actually break a person. Prisons as they are were not designed for rehabilitation. Sports and recreation are a necessary part of rehabilitation.

Aftercare: The community must assist with the care of offenders once they leave the facilities. Some people have nowhere to go upon leaving the prison. Because of their criminal record ex prisoners cannot find employment. There is a need for a culture of acceptance and giving persona a second chance. Other departments and institutions must help.

The Chair thanked Ms Sishuba for her eloquent presentation. He commented that he was very proud to be associated with this plan but wanted to know how far the department had gone with this plan. Mr Van Deventer (NNP) added that this was indeed a very ambitious plan. He asked if it is possible however to execute it especially since it will involve changing the attitude of millions of people. He stated that if it is not possible to implement this plan, pne would find a very frustrated core of Correctional Services staff.

Mr Mlombile, Chief Deputy Commissioner: Corporate Services, noted that he had joined the department only in April. He stated that the key task was to find out what needed to be done to support the staff in achieving the end goal of equipping prisoners with values to enable them to be assets to society. The starting point is the family unit. Once a community fails to correct its own members, then there is a problem. Offenders lack the ability to relate in a principled way to others and that needs to be introduced. They need to be given an attitude of servanthood i.e. to serve with excellence. Further there is no culture of correction in the DCS and in the community. If you fail, people trample on you. There are no role models who are rehabilitated and accepted as ex-offenders. This needed to be put down in writing as a policy document and to say that this is what the department considers to be "cool".

Mr Mlombile stated that on his appointment, the Commissioner asked him to come up with an excellent human resources plan. If the DCS is to achieve all it aims to, they need to look at the kind of staff they need to recruit. People coming in have to be judged by the work they are going to do. The DCS has over 33 000 members looking after 100 000 prisoners without proper training. The training facilities are inadequate and uncoordinated. Training programs are also uncoordinated and there are no professional trainers and no career progression. Staff members are frustrated and when you talk about rehabilitation they do not know what you are talking about.

He said that the department needed time, space and expertise to do all this. He mentioned that money was currently not a problem. Money is a problem when you have it and do not know what to do with it. Talking about Department Responisibilites towards its correctional official in the Powerpoint presentation, he said that because of the huge size of the department, direction tends to be lost at the top. Prisons as an institution must be viable as whole. He pointed out that the flow of information in the department is weak. He also pointed out that by failing to honour the point of delivery of a service, they are having a false organisation based on shallow ground. He said in many cases you find one good person and the rest are mediocre. When that one person leaves, there is a problem.

Other points he made were:
- The issue of career progression and management has been lost.

- Aftercare: As a department, they need to look at people leaving the organization and keep in touch with them. These are people who have invested 20 or 30 years with the department and their experience and expertise is essential.

- External Relationships: The DCS has been weak in dealing with its stakeholders. To deliver on these services, it has to position itself as deliverers and facilitators of services.

- The department was failing to protect prisoners from other prisoners.

Mr Mlombile ended his presentation by stating that these are issues that need to be put on paper so that it can be seen clearly where the problems lie.

Mr Mti assured the Chair that the department was determined to make this plan work and that they were not here to impress him. He pointed out that as a department they command R6.5 billion of the taxpayer money and they need to be seen to be doing something with it. He said that it was not easy and they were struggling but they have to make a difference.

Mr Motseki, Deputy Chief Director: Staffing, continued with the presentation, saying that quite a lot of work had been done starting from last year. After the Job Summit last year there had been deliberations that sought to transfer superfluous staff between departments. He pointed out that it is important to engage with the unions. In an attempt to fast track implementation they had contracted the services of consultants.

Public Service had released a document which required every department to structure itself to deal with Resolution 7. Deadlines for plans of implementing the resolution had been set. The content of the plan dealt with job profiling, compilation of skills audit and development of criteria for placing people once a structure was developed.

The next step will be to identify vacancies available and the skills needed to fulfill services.

He pointed out that every member of staff will have to understood the contents of the strategic shift.

Mr Motseki ended his presentation by saying that given the enormity of the job they may not be able to meet their deadlines. He said June 2003 is the target date for finalising the Green Paper. Further the process of rehabilitation should inform the Green Paper substantially.

Mr Mti apologized on behalf of the department for overloading the committee with so much information. The issue of the Green Paper would not be dealt with in detail but in passing as the Green Paper would need a separate meeting dedicated to it.

Ms Sishuba said that the Minister had announced that there will be a review of the White Paper as it had flaws. She said that the conceptual document on rehabilitation had a long way to go. There was a task team that will facilitate the entire process and all documents created will inform the White Paper. The presentation document outlines the process the Green Paper will take. People with questions as to why there is a second White Paper will be answered.

Mr Tshivase, Chief Financial Officer, spoke on the Department's financial position. He said that DCS might not need more money but merely realign its budget. They have already identified R233 million from within the budget for this process. R21 million in 2001, R63m in 2002 and R67m in 2003 was put aside for rehabilitation alone.

Before, the focal point of the DCS was on safe incarceration but this has changed.

R93m has been put aside for personnel and recruiting people with better ideas that will help in terms of new strategy plan.

As of 30 Sep 2002 the department is supposed to be at 50% expenditure but instead they are at 52%. This is because they had to buy new equipment, which, once bought, will last a long time. Mr Tshivase commented that they were therefore not doing too badly.

Mr then Tshivase went through the budget breakdown as shown in the presentation document.

In conclusion, Mr Mti, spoke of the challenges faced by the department:

- As they engage in all these processes, work must still go on at the same time.

- There is a need to review the structures to ensure that they meet the challenges.

- The problem of severe overcrowding remains. There is a need to draw from the Zimbabwean - where people who commit minor offences are not incarcerated.

- Corruption remains a problem. They continue to follow the Jali Commission, which is coming up with some interesting matters. He said they cannot harbour corrupt people while at the same time trying to rehabilitate those who are.

- There still remains a public demand for punitive measures on offenders. This change of mindset cannot be the responsibility of the DCS alone but a collective effort. He added that there is a general lack of confidence in the criminal justice hence the frequently reported cases of vigilantism and kangaroo courts.

He went on to say that two training colleges were being closed with immediate effect as they are frustrating officials. For example two weeks is spent teaching an official how to handle a button or to lock up a prison. These are things that could be learnt in ten minutes or a manual would be given to teach themselves. Further, there is no specialization in the department. Everyone gets the same basic training whether they are going join the finance or human resources department.

Mr Mti stated that there has not been a fundamental understanding as to why there was a change in 1994 from the Department of Prisons to Correctional Services. This is the reason for this presentation, to respond to that name. The role of the community is going to be central - people on parole must not be the responsibility of the DCS. He ended by saying this realignment was to be done without undermining safe incarceration.

Discussion
The Chair thanked the DCS for a good briefing. He said that there will 3 or 4 other follow up meetings to be held. He said it would not be wise to discuss the Green Paper today but that they could just talk around it. It would require a full meeting to be dedicated to it.

The Chair asked Ms Sishuba if there should not be a more specialized reception areas for criminals in order to better understand the people being dealt with and so that they could be sent to the correct facilities. [The Chair was cautioned against using the term 'criminal' as this was exactly that mentality that the DCS is trying to do away with].

To Mr Tshivase, the Chair said that he had done something he had not seen being done in all his eight years in Parliament. No one has ever come and not asked for money. He asked if the shifting around of monies would not have a heavy impact on other areas such as buildings which need to be fixed.

To the committee at large, the Chair asked for comments on the new generation prisons and suggested that perhaps public hearings should be conducted.

Mr Zondo (ANC) suggested that the matter of the review of the white paper be taken as a priority. He said the other issue of addressing offending behaviour would be difficult because prisoners come out in most cases worse than when they went in. They say they have been to University and children look up to these people. This is a problem with the community and the committee needs to produce a document to deal with these issues.

On overcrowding, Mr Zondo suggested that a cluster committee be set up to deal with this burning issue.

Ms Keke Gwexane, a new ANC member from the Western Cape, assured the DCS that they were aware that they are working under difficult circumstances and trying to change the mind set of prisoners. She asked if the DCS had taken into account the fact that the President had declared this the year of the volunteer and whether they could not use the services of such people.

Mr Bloem (ANC) wanted to know what strategy was being used to recruit personnel. He also asked on what criteria was being used to appoint the head of prisons etc. He pointed out that there were around 1000 people working at headquarters and he wanted to know if this was not a waste of resources. These people had gone to colleges for training but instead are merely pushing paper. He suggested that civilians could be used instead.

On the issue of overcrowding, he asked how the DCS was planning to use the money they have - given the situation. He mentioned that the head of prisons had said it was impossible to implement plans because of overcrowding.

On the issue of corruption, he pointed out that some DCS members in PE had resisted calls by the Jali Commission. He said that this was criminal behavior and called on Mr Mti to explain.

Ms B Dlamini (ANC) pointed out that she was skeptical on this whole program. It was not the first time that the DCS had said it was starting afresh. She said that she appreciated the fact that in this case there was a theoretical framework and this is important.

She went on to say that the concept of restorative justice is important but that it was not a South African one. She called on Ms Sishuba to give it a South African feel and a name fitting South Africa to ensure that it does what we want it to do. She also wanted to know how rehabilitation was going to occur under present prison conditions.

She cautioned against rushing this plan because otherwise if too much is done in order to impress, they were going to make mistakes.

The Chair wanted to know firstly what had happened to the issue of freezing 500 000 posts. Secondly in the implementation of the Act itself, there were many areas that had not been dealt. Thirdly what could they do with the issue of overcrowding. The courts were just throwing people at Correctional Services to deal with. He suggested that bullies be put onto this topic to trample on some sensitive toes in order for something to be done. The leadership is not enthusiastic about dealing with this issue.

The DCS was given the opportunity to deal with the questions.

Mr Mti replied on the point raised by the Chair on specialized reception areas. He said this was a noble idea but that it had some serious financial implications but could be looked into. Assessment of prisoners was done as they came in. They needed cost effective facilities for recreation and hospitals if there is to be effective rehabilitation.

On the issue of overcrowding, he did not know if they could deal with it decisively. Whichever route they take is bound to cause problems. They could say no to awaiting trial prisoners because as a matter of fact this is not their responsibility. They only deal with sentenced offenders. There is a need to build more prisons but this is not sustainable. Further, the police cannot always arrest people for family problems. It makes things worse.

He pointed out that DCS was but a small component of the restorative justice system and that the community and all other relevant institutions need to work together.

He commented that the changing of leadership in the department (6 Commissioners in three years) was a problem. Each has a different style and emphasis and this has impacted on the sustainability of programs.

Further, the fact that there is overcrowding and other problems does not stop rehabilitation. It is those who do not want to do it that will use such excuses. People were trained to hate prisoners. Therefore, the mind set of people that needs changing. So far they have made it work. A prison cell that was design for ten can take 40 people because bunk beds were built.

On the issue of the non-implementation of the Act he said that two issues were being dealt with. The first was the Regulations arising from the Act had been referred to the NOCC. The second was on the Parole Board and a document dealing with these had been completed. They were still using the old style parole system.

On recruitment, he said that at the moment there was a need to recruit and retrain persons who will run with these programs. What they have is an ordinary warder being appointed head of prisons. This cannot work.

Another problem is that they cannot lay off the people that are there and replace them. They have to wait for retirement, resignations or death. Unfortunately people are just not dying!

Mr Mlombile said that the Public Service has a framework on how to recruit public officials and they were using this to recruit. But the problem is the minimum criteria required. The department has three entry levels. People have to pass certain promotional examinations to move on to the next level. This examination has been handed over to Technikon SA.

To become a senior Correctional Services official one needs a tertiary education. But they also consider experience. At the moment there is a lack of skills and officials are out of their depth.

Mr Tshivase talked of the issues hampering rehabilitation. He pointed out that it is true that overcrowding is hampering rehabilitation, but with R363m, they have to be seen to be doing something. At the moment expenditure is at 48% because of these obstacles. At this point they are supposed to be at least at 55%.

On the issue of freezing of posts he said that this is difficult and they will need the assistance of Treasury to reopen these. These had been frozen in order to afford other programmes. He said it had been clearly indicated that Correctional Services was being given APOPS (Asset Procurement and Operation Partnership System - private prisons)

The Chair asked if it had been wise to do this. Someone obviously knew that this was a wrong decision, but went ahead with it.

Mr Tshivase agreed that this was not a correct decision and that Treasury had advised against it. He said at the time he was a mere financial manager and took orders from the top.

The Chair insisted that something illegal had gone down and someone knew what it was. He said he was not sure what but that the DCS had some explaining to do. He said that this matter needed to be discussed in full with all the other members of the opposition present.

Mr Bloem suggested that an urgent meeting be called with the Minister present to discuss this issue.

Mr Mti said that there was a presentation they needed to do on the APOPS. He said the decision to go the APOPS way was political. There had been political pressure on officials.

The Chair commented that SA was not a banana republic. There is a rule of law and no room for anarchy. If there is corruption, it will be exposed and the perpetrators dealt with accordingly. The issue needed to be looked at.

Ms Sishuba went back to the issue of specialised reception areas. She said that a framework has been developed. Every one who comes in is assesed. There is a need for specialised skills such as with sexual offences. More homework must be done within the department. They had gone to tertiary institutions to find out if they had trained people for Correctional Services. The answer was no.

She said that the model identified by the Chair was the same as one used in Vienna where everything - the courts, assessment and prison - are in one area. They have studied this and it remains an ideal.

She went on to say that they were taking the literacy issue for prisoners seriously. She said that INISA was assisting with the provision of bursaries. A tender has gone out for provision of material to this end.

She cautioned against the use of volunteers.

On the issue raised by Ms Dlamini on restorative justice being a foreign concept, she said that this was in fact not the case. Mediation and negotiated solutions was part of African culture, which was adopted, modified and refined overseas. They were merely reclaiming what was already theirs.

She said there was a need to train people on mediation and how to facilitate the programme.

She said the poverty elimination programme launched by the minister on training offenders to make a contribution was important.

The Chair asked how far the law went on the issue of human rights and using prisoners for work.

Mr Mlombile said there was a need to establish relations with the private sector such as the Hyperama to have prisoners working there in their uniform so that it can be seen that they are making a difference, not only in their lives but to the community as a whole.

The chair commented that this would change the paradigm of thinking. He said that even the ruling party at the top believes that prisons are five star hotels. One often gets comments like 'lock them up and throw away the key'.

Mr Zondo said that prison was there to correct people and not necessarily to punish. Also to secure the community from dangerous persons and confront them on the law and the wrong they did.

Ms Sishuba said that punishment ended with sentencing. From then on correction begins. However, the labour issue and unions needs to be looked at carefully. There are complaints that prisoners are taking away jobs for the people.

In closing the meeting, the Chair pointed out that this was a 3 and a half hours well spent. He said the DCS must make sure that they reach their objectives and have clear policies. He said that the quality of their presentation showed that they took their work and Parliament seriously.