Prison Overcrowding, Correctional Services Amendment Bill, Department Programmes 2001: Briefing

Meeting report

SECURITY AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE
15 FEBRUARY 2001
PRISON OVERCROWDING, CORRECTIONAL SERVICES AMENDMENT BILL, DEPARTMENT PROGRAMMES 2001: BRIEFING

Chairperson: Mr S Tsietsi

Documents handed out:
Overcrowding in Prisons - Department of Correctional Services
Complaints Letters from Prisoners
Correctional Services Amendment Bill [B8-2001]
Activities of the Department of Correctional Services-Human Resources 2001
Activities of the Department of Correctional Services (email [email protected] about these doucments)

MINUTES
Correctional Services Amendment Bill: briefing
The National Commissoner of Correctional Services, Mr Mbatha, noted that the Correctional Services Act was enacted in 1998. He mentioned the problems and difficulties his department is experiencing in the implementation of the Correctional Supervision and Parole Boards. Among the issues they are calling for amendments are the following:
The removal from the Board of members from the Justice Department and SAPS as well as one member from Correctional Services but the Boards may have the right to co-opt these members and they will have the same status as those of the board’s members.
- Commissioners from SAPS and Correctional Services as well as Director-General from Justice and National Director of Public Prosecutions will determine a schedule of offences and terms of sentences. The Boards must advise Justice and the SAPS two months in advance of a Board’s sitting to obtain recommendations on the granting of parole or correctional supervision in a specific case.
- After a thorough discussion with the Inspecting Judge, and the Council on Correctional Services, it was realised that the proper placement of a unit to eradicate corruption in the Department of Correctional Services should be with the Department and not the Judicial Inspectorate.
- The bill seeks to give the Commissioner the authority to return a parolee if there is a belief that the parolee does not comply with parole conditions without referring the matter to parole board.
- The amendments also seek to give the Commissioner some powers on matters concerning human resources such as remuneration and disciplining of officials.
(See Appendix for details)

Prison Overcrowding
The National Commissioner of Prisons, Mr Mbatha, said that South African prisons have an accommodation capacity for 101 991 prisoners. At present there is a population of 163 546 prisoners in South African prisons. This constitutes an average overpopulation rate of 60,35% and a need for accommodation for 61 555 prisoners.

The overcrowding of prisons can be attributed to the increasing number of awaiting trial prisoners and could be considered the main contributing factor to overcrowding.

The Department of Correctional Services acknowledges the fact that overcrowded prisons have an adverse effect on prisoners, staff and the safe custody of prisoners.

Measures to address overcrowding
The Department is involved in a number of inter-departmental projects developed within the Crime Prevention, Justice and Safety Cluster, namely:
· Electronic Data Interchange (SAPS and the Department) - The Department had recently sent all their data electronically to SAPS and are waiting for SAPS to send the Department all SAPS information electronically.
· Awaiting Trial Prisoners Projects
· Court Process Project
· National Photo Image System
· Inmate Tracking

The Department had taken various measures to reduce overcrowding which ranged from assisting prisoners to obtain money to pay their fines (if they were for "petty" crimes) to early placement of 8678 sentenced prisoners through the advancement of their approved parole dates.

Since April 2000 the prisoner population decreased from 172 272 prisoners to 163 546 prisoners on 31 December 2000 (5,07% decrease). The accommodation capacity has increased from 100 384 to 101 991 over the same period (1,6% increase). (See relevant document for detail)

Discussion
Mr L Lever (DP) said that the Automatic Finger Printing System (AFS) had the potential to safeguard the principle that where a person is a threat to the community, he would remain away from the community. He asked when the AFS would be implemented.

The Commissioner said that the AFS was long overdue. The manual system of identifying people’s fingerprints caused the delay in the entire process. The Department "was deep in the process of implementing" AFS.

Mr P Matthee (NNP) asked when the electronic monitoring systems were going to be implemented?

The Commissioner said that the Department was also deep in the process of implementing this system. However, there was a slight mistake in the specifications that were written for the system. The Department would re-advertise the tender specifications in the middle of April.

Mr Lever noted that community service was a measure that could be used to reduce overcrowding. However, it can only be implemented in urban areas as rural areas do not have the infrastructure for community service.

The Commissioner replied that community service was a new concept in South Africa. Recently certain officials in the Department had visited Zimbabwe and realised that Zimbabwe was much more advanced than South Africa in respect of community service. The Judges of the High Court drive community service in Zimbabwe. There is complete co-ordination between the Department of Justice, the police and the Department of Correctional Services. South Africa would learn from the Zimbabwean system of community service and the co-ordination of the relevant Departments.

Mr T Taabe (ANC) said that he was under the impression that the problem of overcrowding at Barberton Prison was going to be tackled. However, he recently learned that National Treasury would not fund the Department for the development of the prison at Barberton. Why had Barberton been ignored?

The Commissioner replied that the Department had identified eight APOPS [Asset Procurement and Operation Partnership System] prisons projects, however, due to financial constraints the Department had had to scale down from eight to four projects. Barberton was on the list of the remaining four projects. However National Treasury had then informed the Department that it would have to re-prioritise as they would only fund two projects. Barberton was thus excluded.

Mr Matthee asked the Commissioner what were the Department’s goals as far as overcrowding was concerned. He also said that the Department gives the impression that their budget is "all right". However, it had been heard that the department had to freeze over five thousand posts.

The Commissioner replied that overcrowding must be looked at from the premise that the Department cannot "build" itself out of overcrowding. If that were the measure to be adopted, it would cost R29 billion to build 44 prisons within the next ten years. Also "no one wants to be a country of prisons". The Department would also not be able to sustain so many prisons. It would also not be fair to utilise that much of taxpayer money to build and sustain such prisons.

The Commissioner set out the following goals of the Department:
· Crime must be dealt with unsympathetically. However, the Department does believe that there are people who commit "petty" crimes due to their unfortunate economic conditions. These people do not have to be made part of the statistics that crowd South African prisons. The Department would engage with the Department of Justice to look at community service for such offenders.
· Some people are clogging the system simply because they cannot pay their bail which is relatively small. The Department is looking at letting these people out and allowing them to return on their trial date. This would be discussed with the Department of Justice.
· If the parole date for some prisoners is relatively close and the prisoners have little time left to serve their sentence, the Department is looking at releasing these prisoners early.

Department’s Programmes 2001/2002
The Commissioner set out various priorities for the Department, which included:
· Human Resources -There is strong focus in the Department on the recruitment of more officials. There is a need to expand the Department’s capacity.
· Six to seven day establishment – The Department had to pay a lot of their employees overtime as in certain circumstances employees preferred working on weekends due to the increased remuneration. Thus to avoid spending too much on overtime the Financial Management Board of the Department decided that the Department would move toward the implementation of a seven day establishment. Overtime funds would be instead used to create more posts. Thus employees who work on weekends would not be paid overtime but compensated by means of days off for work performed on weekends. On the days off that are claimed as remuneration for overtime, the posts created from overtime funds would be used for relief purposes.
· Vukuza – This is a holistic approach to internal control problems: the project aim is for the Department to become instrumental in ensuring the application and improvement of its internal control measures
· Training and development – The Department is currently in the process of implementing programmes for the training and development of staff such as retraining of Custodial Staff and Management Development.
· MEDCOR – The administration of its medical aid, MEDCOR, is being improved. There is going to be an appointment of a Board of Trustees that would appoint a Principal Officer. MEDCOR would have to be reregistered as a medical aid and in terms of the Medical Schemes Act, 1998.

Discussion
Mr Taabe asked whether the Preferential Procurement Framework Act was complied with specifically in respect of tenders for building contracts. He asked if the Department considered Black Economic Empowerment issues.

The Commissioner said that the Act was complied with for most contracts.

Mr Lever asked whether there had been a cost-benefit analysis for APOPS.

The Commissioner replied that the Department of Finance had done a study in this regard. The Commissioner would make this document available to the Committee.

Mr Lever also asked what could be seen as the Department’s performance indicator.

The Commissioner said that it could be measured against the manner in which the overcrowding issue was dealt with or the effectiveness of the Department’s rehabilitation programme.

The meeting was adjourned.

Appendix:
In Clause 1, the terms ‘amenities’, ‘authorized official’ and ‘disability’ were defined. In terms of Clause 2: the Commissioner may also remunerate and discipline officials.
Clause 4: The Minister may not only establish prisons but also classify them.
Clause 5: The rationale for compulsory medical examination of a prisoner on admission is the protection of the health of the general prison population.
Clause 6: A prisoner can now occupy a single cell under normal circumstances.
Clause 7: The upper limit between meal intervals is 6.5 hours.
Clause 9: Inserted to be disability and gender sensitive.
Clause 12: An ‘authorized official’ will assist the Head of Prison in disciplinary hearings. There will be legal representation and procedures at these hearings.
Clause 16: Mechanical restraint devices may only be used outside cells.
Clause 17: Force may be used for self-defence or in the defence of someone else, if a prisoner tries to escape or for the protection of property.
Clause 18: Non-lethal incapacitating devices e.g. teargas may not fired into a crowd and it should be used with minimal and proportional force.
Clause 19: Firearms may be used in self defence on condition that: (i) a verbal warning has been given, (ii) a warning shot has been fired and (iii) the line of fire should be directed in such a manner that the probable result will not be fatal.
Clause 20: A child prisoner may only do work for the purposes of training aimed at obtaining skills for his/her development. The work may not be inappropriate for the child’s age or may not place the child’s educational, physical, mental, moral or social well-being at risk.
Clause 25: Where a prisoner has violated parole, the Commissioner may instruct that community corrections be resumed without referring the prisoner back to the parole board.
Clauses 27 and 28: The removal of members of the Departments of Justice and SAPS and one member of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). The Boards may co-opt officials of SAPS and Justice who will have voting rights. Commissioners of DCS and SAPS, the DG of Justice and the National Director of Public Prosecutions will determine a schedule of offences and terms of sentences. The Boards must advise Justice and the SAPS two months in advance of a Board’s sitting to obtain recommendations on the granting of parole or correctional supervision in a specific case.
Clause 29: The functions of the Judicial Inspectorate now include facilitating inspections of prisons so as to report any corrupt and dishonest practices in prisons.
Clause 30: The Inspecting Judge has the same powers and duties as the Commissioner for the purposes of administrative management and control of employees under his/her authority.
Clause 35: The Commissioner may sell any property of escaped/deceased prisoners which have been seized in terms of the Act which is not lawfully claimed within six months of the escape/death. The proceeds settle claims against the prisoner and the balance is paid into the National Revenue Fund. If, after the six months the person proves that he is entitled to the proceeds, the balance must be paid to him.
Clause 39: This clause provides for the extension of S134 of the Act.
Clause 40: The new Act will not apply to a prisoner serving a sentence in terms of the previous Act. The new Act is therefore not retrospective.