Gangsterism and Suicide in Prisons: briefing by Mangaung Prison

Correctional Services

31 October 2006
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Meeting report

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
31 October 2006
GANGSTERISM AND SUICIDE IN PRISONS: BRIEFING BY MANGAUNG PRISON

Chairperson
: Mr DV Bloem (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Briefing by the management of Mangaung Correctional Centre on suicide and self-harm
Briefing by the management of Mangaung Correctional Centre on gang management

SUMMARY
Mangaung Correctional Centre gave briefings on the positive impact that its suicide and self-harm and gang control programmes had on the running of its facility. The Committee focused on how these programmes could be transferred to South African correctional services at large. The prison was asked if its facility faced any of the gangsterism problems identified by the Jali Commission. The Committee was concerned that Mangaung, as a new facility, was not affected by the traditional problems facing the criminal justice system and that its example could thus not easily be followed elsewhere.


MINUTES
The Chairperson welcomed the representatives of the Mangaung Correctional Centre (MCC), saying that the Committee had been impressed with their facility when they had visited it earlier in the year. He then made some general remarks about the prevalence of gangsterism in South African prisons, and that admitting a problem was the first step in combating it and that procuring this briefing was a good start by the Committee in moving towards a solution.

Mangaung Correctional Centre’s suicide and self-harm programme
Ms C van Eyk (Section Head: Inmate Care and Development - Mangaung Correctional Centre) briefed the Committee on the prison’s suicide and self-harm programme (SASH).

The programme aims to provide a system to help employees to identify inmates who are at risk of harming themselves; to provide the support and assistance necessary to prevent these inmates from harming themselves; and to help the recovery from a self-harm or suicide crisis through care and supportive management. It aims to provide a holistic, multidisciplinary, ongoing process. Every employee of the prison receives initial and ongoing training on his or her responsibilities within the programme. An inmate identified as displaying suicidal or self-harm behaviour will be assessed initially within 48 hours and progress will be monitored according to the inmate's special needs. In all instances the inmate is included in the planning of the necessary intervention.

Mr F Venter (Managing Director: Mangaung Correctional Centre) added that, of the 3000 inmates in the prison, the average number of those in the SASH programme is five, with the high water mark being 12 but often only one. This was to dispel any impression that a large proportion of prisoners were prone to suicide and self-abuse.

Mangaung Correctional Centre gang management strategy
Mr Venter noted that prison gangs are a major feature of the South African correctional system and cannot be wished away. Due to the long sentences that the inmates are serving, they know the system and its loopholes. A conscious strategy has been adopted and implemented at MCC in order to address this problem. This strategy aims to develop an understanding of the reasons why prisoners join gangs and to establish a consistent approach in handling gang members in order to manage them effectively and to minimise the negative impact  that gangs have on the security of other inmates and employees. This included using the various beneficial inmate programmes at MCC. The strategy has to be continually updated and has to remain as dynamic as the gangs themselves.

Discussion
The Chairperson asked Mr Venter to give a description of the type of inmates at MCC in terms of what crimes they were convicted of and what sentences they are serving.

Mr Venter said that 96% of the prison’s population is serving sentences of longer than ten years. Around 38% of those have life sentences or sentences of longer than twenty years. Most inmates were convicted of either violent or sexual offences. He observed that of their previous convictions, prior to the ones for which they were serving sentences at MCC, 64% would have been economic offences. This meant that a large proportion of South Africans who are convicted of economic offences, get out of prison and then commit more serious offences.

Mr M Sayedali-Shah (DA) asked whether to speak about ‘management’ of gangs in prison implied a certain defeatism and whether it was impossible to eradicate gangs in prison. If this was so, he said it was misleading to refer to prisons as correctional facilities.

Mr Sayedali-Shah asked if Mr Venter thought that MCC’s staff were competent in their numbers and training to implement SASH, and whether it could be implemented in other prisons.

Mr Venter replied that one needs to acknowledge that gangs are there, the same way that one acknowledges that crime is there. Once one acknowledges this, one can start managing it and reducing it. One needs to get gang activity lowered and reduce gang influence on the prisoner. Perhaps in twenty years' time, it will be possible to eradicate it, but it is a process that needs to be managed. This acknowledgement of the existence of gangsterism was not the same as admitting defeat. One needs to fight gangs in a sensible way and with a management strategy, not in a haphazard manner. He said that the effects of the process can already be seen, with 23 reportable incidents in a month when the prison was opened, now down to only six.

Mr J Selfe (DA) said that MCC was fortunate to have a defined population, new facilities and a low staff to inmate ratio. Mr Venter had said that the most inmates in one cell was four. He observed that this leads to more direct supervision, which assists with suicide and gang management. He then compared this to Pollsmoor prison’s admissions centre which is filled to four times its capacity and has big communal cells. He asked if there were practical solutions that could be transferred from the experience at MCC to prisons like Pollsmoor.

Mr Venter answered that he thinks that the SASH system can be implemented in other prisons as well, that it was implemented at MCC from the word go. Although there were more challenges, he believed that it could work in bigger system too. He was not sure that he had a lower staff to inmate ratio than other prisons, as MCC was close to the Correctional Service’s overall ratio of one to six. There may however be a difference on the ground, with more staff in direct contact with the inmates. He said that he was not that up to date with the admissions centre at Pollsmoor and could not speculate on what one could and could not do there. He identified that there was a dynamic, specifically in the Western Cape, where the gangs in the prison are affiliated with the gangs outside. Because there is a high turnover of inmates in the admissions centre, there are new prisoners entering the system quite frequently, which in itself poses quite a challenge. But on a broader basis, there are a lot of prisons without that turnover and where you can start breaking down the gangs. He agreed that situations like the admissions centre posed a significant challenge.

Mr E Xolo (ANC) asked how much the SASH process costs government, considering that it begins when an inmate arrives and ends on release.

Mr Venter replied that the last report from the Department of Correctional Services indicated that it cost the Department R123 per day to maintain a prisoner. He said that although this is a lot of money, one can try to rehabilitate him and help ensure that he does not end up back in prison for another offence. Therefore, the money spent on correction today is not spent for the present, but rather for the future. Accordingly, these rehabilitation programmes need to be up and running in all correctional facilities.

Mr Xolo asked whether religious ministers play any part in preventing the inmates from committing suicide or self’-abuse.

Mr Venter answered that he was of the opinion that religion was part of rehabilitation. MCC caters for over 40 religions in the prison. This brings a calming effect and a sense of purpose to the prisoners. MCC was the only facility in the Free State where some theology students do their practicals in the prison. There is a difference between ministry inside and ministry outside the prison and that MCC had trained up prison ministers.

Ms van Eyk added that whenever it has been indicated by a person in the SASH intervention programme that he or she needs religious assistance, the religious worker will form part of the multi-disciplinary team contributing to that person's recovery.

Mr S Mahote (ANC) asked how MCC trained its employees to identify the inmates in need of the SASH programme. As Mr Venter had said that his prison shares information with DCS, he asked whether those training strategies were being shared with the department. He then referred to Mr Venter’s comments that there was no difference in ratio of staff to prisoners, but only a difference in the number of staff on the ground level. In his opinion that was the level where there was the greatest need for staff presence.

Ms van Eyk replied to the question about MCC’s staff capacity building and how it trains its employees. She said that it trains them on site and that they all go to an induction training course for three months. One of the prerequisites for working in the prison is that they must obtain over 80% in their assessment. One of the modules is training on all the SASH procedures. They are also made aware of the suicidal indicators. Therefore, all of the 500 employees know the indicators and what to do if they find them. Each year they also get refresher training.

Mr Venter replied to the question of MCC sharing information with DCS. He said that a lot of groups from Correctional Services come through MCC to learn and see how it is doing things. MCC also assists DCS in the Free State by facilitating some of its training sessions and sharing information with it. He said that he was not reluctant to share MCC’s strategies for combating gangsterism, as long as people understood that MCC was still in its infancy. He said that they did not have all the answers though and that one has to acknowledge that it is a big problem. He said that MCC had a criminologist who has done a lot of work in terms of the gangs. She had also assisted Correctional Services with their gang work.

As to the staff to inmate ratio, Mr Venter reiterated that it was one to six throughout the system, but agreed that it was skewed because Correctional Services had a lot more of its employees in administration work.

Mr N Fihla (ANC) observed that survival of the fittest is one of the major features of prison life and that gangsterism grew out of this predicament. He said that in the past, people in prison were thrown in and forgotten by society and were brutalised by the warders and their fellow inmates. In order to survive they grouped themselves into gangs. South Africa is trying to move from a retributive to restorative system of justice. In retributive systems, gangsterism is rife. In South African prisons, the biggest problem is overcrowding. A prisoner at St Albans had told him that he and some other inmates were trying to isolate the new inmates from being influenced by gangsters. They were trying to persuade the warders to have a separate section for people who do not want to join gangs. Mr Fihla thought that this is a good idea and could be implemented but for the problem of overcrowding. He concluded that it will only be possible to manage gangsterism at such time that it is possible to deal with overcrowding.

Mr Venter agreed that life in prison was survival of fittest. The problem the with gang situation in South Africa as opposed to elsewhere, is that the gangs are not limited to within one prison’s walls, so one cannot transfer a gang member to another prison to isolate him from his gang. Therefore the challenge was much bigger than in other countries.

Ms W Ngwenya (ANC) asked, in terms of MCC addressing the problem of suicide, how much success it had in healing people who were lonely and in need and in helping them to cope with their situation. She said that when she spent her ten-year term in prison during apartheid, she wanted to kill herself because her family did not want to visit her and she felt very isolated. There must be inmates in a similar situation who felt that nobody cared for them.

Mr Venter replied that the prison does a lot in terms of assisting people coming into prison. It helped them with their appeal paper work and they knew that they could ask for legal aid and did utilise it. MCC also has a system of personal officers: every staff member, even those in management, is allocated to five specific inmates. Every two weeks the inmate can talk to his officer. So if he feels that he is out of hope and has had no contact with family, MCC has ensured that there is another person who cares for him and whom he can talk to.

Mr M Cele (ANC) related a story he knew of an inmate who was sodomised in prison and subsequently stabbed the perpetrator when he came across him after his release. He asked for some comment on the relationship between prisoners’ subculture of violence in and outside of prison.

Mr Venter replied that there was a subculture of violence in most prisons. He had had five or six reported cases of sodomy in the last five years, but he could not be sure whether everything was as it seemed. If one is not in the cell and does not see it, one does not know about it. In each of the reported instances, MCC had given anti-retrovirals to both perpetrator and victim. He understood that sodomy left scars on victims and that retaliation could happen after being released.

Mr L Tolo (ANC) referred to the Jali Commission report on the matter of gangsterism. According to the report, it had even been suggested that gangs are running some prisons. He asked if Mr Venter had any problem with gangs running his prison to some degree.

Mr Venter replied that running a prison may mean a lot of things and that he is not sure what the Jali Commission was referring to. He referred to a common practice in many prisons of getting inmates working in such areas as the clothing store, to issue clothing to inmates. If he were a gangster, he would give the best clothes to his fellow gang members. MCC had direct supervision and did not give prisoners that decision-making capacity and, therefore, they did not get in control. He could believe it if the report said that it is prevalent in the criminal justice system at large, but it is not so at MCC because it had a totally different system of management. If there is a no-go area for staff in prison, this means inmates can be there without staff. There were no no-go areas in MCC. That is where inmates get power over each other.

 Mr Tolo made reference to the provision in the report to the effect that  members of the prisons’ staff also belong to gangs. He asked Mr Venter if he had such a problem at MCC

Mr Venter replied that this finding by the Commission was not applicable to MCC, but that he could believe that staff could feel unsafe in an overcrowded prison and may align themselves to a gang for protection. This meant that in the long run, such a staff member would have to turn a blind eye to some of the activity of the gang. Thus one needs to address the root issue of why staff would want to be in or aligned with a gang, for things like the protection or financial incentives that a gang might offer.

Mr Tolo made reference to the provision in the report dealing with alcohol and drugs getting into the prisons as a problem in need of addressing. He asked if MCC had this problem, and if not, if they could share with the Committee how they counteract it.

Mr Venter said that with regard to drugs and alcohol being available in prisons, it was not a problem at MCC, but at the same time it was not a problem that could be completely screened out, no matter what systems were put in place. All visitors had to pre-book and all were searched at the gate for drugs and sniffer dogs were also employed in the screening process. While one can put a lot of money into security systems, this could not completely prevent the entry of drugs. He gave the example of a tennis ball full of drugs being thrown over the prison wall.

In concluding the meeting, the Chairperson agreed with the notion that the money spent on prisoners today must be for their future. It must be spent in trying to prevent the prisoner from ending up back in prison. An efficient prison like MCC with workshops and opportunities for the inmates’ personal development should be used for juveniles who could still make use of a second chance in the outside world.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

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