PARLIAMENT: RESEARCH UNIT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

07 March 2008

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

A CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PERSPECTIVE ON THE 2008 STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS

The State of the Nation Address highlighted the need to ensure an integrated and coordinated approach to the problem of crime in this country. In addition, in line with the 2007 State of the Nation Address, the President stressed the need to ensure that communities become intricately involved in efforts to combat crime.

The President outlined the following focus areas with regard to the criminal justice system, which are applicable to Correctional Services:

· Transformation and revamp of the criminal justice system, in particular, by the establishment of coordinating and management structures.

· Focused attention on the issue of repeat offenders.

· Implementation of the Victims' Charter.

In addition, the State of the Nation Address outlined a number of priorities for all Government Departments including the Department of Correctional Services. These include:

· The filling of critical vacancies within six months of a vacancy occurring.

· The improvement of services provided to vulnerable sectors, such as woman and youth.

IMPACT ON CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

The State of the Nation Address raised a number of issues that impact both directly and indirectly on the Department of Correctional Services. With regard to the direct issues, the following are relevant:

Revamp of the criminal justice system

The major outcome expected from the revamping and transformation of the criminal justice system is the increased coordination and management of all efforts towards a common goal of fighting crime.

There are clear linkages between the various Departments within the criminal justice system which necessitates close collaboration in order to ensure a unified approach to crime. Key role-players include the Departments of Justice (including the National Prosecuting Authority and the Legal Aid Board), Safety and Security, Correctional Services, Home Affairs, Defence and Intelligence. While much progress has been made over the past few years to ensure collaboration on projects which are inter-departmental, it has been suggested that there are no structures, except at Cabinet level that jointly look at management of the entire criminal justice system. The State of the Nation Address did not provide details on the envisaged management arrangements, other than stating that part of this revamp will include the establishment of a "new, coordinating and management structure for the system at every level, from national to local, bringing together the judiciary and magistracy, the police, prosecutors, correctional services and the Legal Aid Board"' Subsequent statements have revealed that a Cabinet Minister, appointed from the ranks of the existing Executive will be appointed to champion this initiative.

Increased coordination is of importance to the Department of Correctional Services, that has constantly bemoaned the fact that they are at the tail-end of the criminal justice process. This has resulted in their inability to deal effectively with a number of the more serious problems facing the Department including overcrowding, a high Awaiting Trial Detainee (ATD) population and children in prison. While various intersectoral coordinating structures have been established to address these problems, and have achieved successes, the establishment of permanent structures responsible for managing all inter-sectoral projects and initiatives will improve coordination and management of criminal justice system initiatives.

Repeat offenders

The issue of repeat offenders is not only a problem for the Department of Correctional Services but for the nation as a whole. This is due to the fact that if offenders consistently re-offend, then the pool of criminals within society will not diminish. It is a major challenge, particularly for Correctional Services because the extent of re-offence (or conversely, the extent to which an offender has been rehabilitated) is one of the outcomes used to measure their effectiveness

In a penological sense, the word recidivism is the most popular term used to refer to repeat offending. In order to understand recidivism in our correctional centres it is important to understand its true extent in our prisons. This is a difficult task, as even in the Annual Reports of the Department of Correctional Services no mention is made of the rate of recidivism in their correctional centres. However, during a meeting with the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, the Commissioner of Correctional Services, acknowledged that the rate of recidivism is their centres is estimated to be extremely high, at about 94 percent.

One of the major difficulties in determining the recidivism rate is that there are a number of different definitions of recidivism which include:

· Rearrest: Are criminals considered "recidivists" when they are rearrested? If so, does the type of crime make any difference? Would a juvenile car thief be considered a recidivist if rearrested for running away from home?

· Reconviction rate: What about those rearrested who are not reconvicted? Can they be classified as recidivist if they are innocent in the eyes of the law?

· Reincarcerated: Even if reconvicted, does it matter whether or not they are reincarcerated? What if their only punishment is a fine?

There are a number of factors contributing to high recidivism rates. Key amongst these factors is overcrowding. At the end of November 2007, the Department of Correctional Services accomodated a total of 163 464 offenders of which 114 226 were sentenced and 49 238 were unsentenced offenders. The 237 prisons in the country were built to accommodate 114 559 offenders. This translates into an average overcrowding rate in prisons of approximately 142%. The prison with the highest population is Johannesburg Medium A which, although designed to accommodate 2 630 offenders, currently accommodates 6 111 offenders. In one of their reports, the Independent Prison Visitors found the following conditions in one of the correctional centres:

· Inmates were sleeping on the floor.

· Medium and maximum prisoners housed together.

· There were only 44 beds available for each group of approximately 100 inmates.

· About 74 inmates were housed in a cell which should have accommodated 16 offenders.

A single toilet and shower was used by 59 inmates.

The Department of Correctional Services is making efforts to reduce overcrowding in their centres. During 2005, 30 000 offenders were released as a result of the special remission of sentences. Six correctional centres are in the pipeline for construction, which has already begun in Kimberly. The tender process is currently being finalised for the other five centres. These five new correctional centres will be built in East London, Klerksdorp, Nigel, Port Shepstone, and Paarl. In addition, the Department of Correctional Services has put in place a number of initiatives to deal with Awaiting Trail Detainees (ATDs) including the establishment of the Management of Remand Detention Project.

Coupled with overcrowding is the lack of sufficient staff and consequently the lack of services such as social work, psychological services, and most importantly education within correctional centres. There are a number of reasons for shortages of these professionals within the Department of Correctional Services. These include poor salaries, difficult working conditions and concerns around the safety of personnel. The latter came under the spotlight in 2005 when two nursing staff were stabbed and one raped at the Baviaanspoort Youth Correctional Facility (Emthonjeni) by two juvenile prisoners.

Initiatives within the Department of Correctional Services to address shortages of professional staff have included the recruitment of university students to do their internships within the Department of Correctional Services. An amount of R20 million was made available to implement the scarce skills policy, specifically to attract pharmacists and psychologists to the Department. Additional professionals identified and prioritised for the scarce skills allowance include accountants and auditors.

Another issue effecting rehabilitation is the concern as to whether the programmes provided in correctional centres address the particular behaviour of offenders which gave rise to their offending. The Programme: Corrections provides for needs-based correctional sentence plans and interventions based on an assessment of the security risk and criminal profile of individuals. The sentence plan is supposed to target all elements associated with offending behaviour, and focus on the offence for which a person is sentenced. Implementation of these personalised sentence plans has been slow.

In its approach to rehabilitation, the Department of Correctional Services is also assisted by nongovernment organisations (NGOs). In this regard, two programmes provided by external service providers were quality assured, namely the Alternative to Violence Project by Phaphama Initiative and the Drug Peer Educator Programme developed by the Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative. The Department of Correctional Services has developed a treatment programme for aggressive offenders that targets offenders who have committed aggressive crimes such as murder, robbery and assault. This programme teaches offenders to take responsibility for their actions and to identify the causes for their behaviour.

Other related initiatives include the Offender Rehabilitation Path (ORP) which outlines the framework for institutional structures and programmes for the management of each offender's term of incarceration. The Department has also finalised the Social Reintegration Strategy and Policy, the aim of which is to significantly improve the quality of services rendered to parolees and probationers and increase the involvement of social partners and communities. There are challenges in implementation of these initiatives by the Department. For instance, the Correctional Sentence Plan could not be implemented because of the lack of establishment, appointment and funding of the Correctional Intervention Officials who should form part of Comprehensive Assessment Team (CAS) to develop these plans and of the Case Review Teams (CRTs) to develop the Correctional Sentence Revision Framework (CSPRF).

It is only when these challenges are addressed, that the problem of recidivism can be tackled effectively. In addition, it is unclear as to whether the Department of Correctional Services currently keeps records of recidivism rates, and of offenders who consistently re-offend. In light of the identification of this priority in the State of the Nation Address, it would thus be important for the Department to put in place comprehensive measures to monitor the problem of recidivism. This would include for example, keeping exhaustive records of re-offending offenders, including the identification of possible reasons for this re-offence which can then be targeted to be addressed.

Since most ex-offenders who return to crime do so shortly after release, it becomes important for the Department to enhance their capacity in terms of reintegration programmes. The Department has developed Stages 8 and 9 of the Offender Rehabilitation Path (ORP) that maps out the process from admission to release of offenders admitted directly from courts and correctional centres in line with the White Paper on Corrections. Stage 8 of the ORP focus on the admission of offenders to a community corrections office with a clear plan for implementation, whereas stage 9 focus on the management of probationers who are directly placed under community corrections by the courts. The Social Reintegration Programme which ensures sustainable correction and rehabilitation through an integrated correctional system by mobilising the community as partners in the rehabilitation process, creates opportunities for restoration by rebuilding and nurturing relationships between offenders and their families, victims, communities and society at large.

A serious problem effecting recidivism is the lack of employment opportunities for ex-offenders which creates difficulties for offenders in their adjustment to community life. This is exacerbated by the high unemployment rate in the country which stands at 24.2%. An interesting initiative in this regard is the employment of 137 ex-offenders in the construction of the new Kimberly correctional centre.

The Victims' Charter

The current status of victims in the criminal justice system is merely that of State witness or a source of information, with offenders being positioned in terms of having to pay a debt to the State rather than to the victim. Victims are largely left alone to deal with the trauma visited upon them as a result of the criminal actions of the offender. In order to address this problem, the State of the Nation Address proposes further implementation of the Victim's Charter which was approved by Cabinet in 2004. The history of Victim's Charter can be traced back to 1996 when Government approved the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) which introduced a victim-centred approach to the criminal justice system. The aims of the Charter are to ensure that victims remain central to the criminal justice process in South Africa, to eliminate secondary victimisation from this process, to clarify the standards of services to be accorded victims by the criminal justice system including Correctional Services and to provide for recourse when these standards are not met.

In implementing the Victim's Charter the Department of Correctional Services has established 52 new Correctional Supervision Parole Boards in 2005. For the first time in South Africa victims can attend parole hearings and may have a say in the decisions regarding the offender. These Boards are chaired by community members who are regarded as suitable and capable of carrying out this responsibility. The Department provides these people with intensive training in respect of the process, the legislative implications and relevant policies.

Critical Vacancies

A key aspect of ensuring effective delivery is the filling of vacant posts within any department. This aspect was raised in the 2008 State of the Nation Address when it was stated that critical vacancies should be filled within six months of such openings arising.

One of the key challenges facing the Department of Correctional Services is the recruitment and retention, particularly of scarce skills. The Department is suffering from severe skills shortages in relation to certain professions such as psychologists, teachers, and social workers. Attracting these skills to the DCS will require favourable conditions of services and the conditions on offer at the moment do not meet this requirement. In the Strategic Plan (2007/2008-2011/12) the Department of Correctional Services indicates that they intend to reduce the vacancy rate for professionals and/ or scarce skills to below 50 percent.34 In addition, the Department intends to reduce the average turnaround time for filling vacancies to 3 months. The Department has finalised both the Integrated Human Resource Strategy and the Recruitment and Retention Strategy for Scarce Skills. The Department has also outsourced its recruitment function to private companies such as Pinpoint one, ITP, Grey Consulting, Lumka, Leadway, Jobvest and Human Communications in order to reduce the time taken to fill vacant posts,

Vulnerable groups

The State of the Nation Address identified the need to provide improved services to vulnerable groups. Two of these groups- women and youth (including children)- receive particular attention within the Department of Correctional Services.

Given their more limited involvement in crime, it is not surprising to find that woman comprise only a small fraction of the offender population. As at 30 November 2007, the prison population in South Africa comprised of 163 464 offenders held in 237 correctional centres. Of these offenders 3 462 (22%) were females consisting of 2 481 unsentenced and 981 sentenced offenders. One hundred and sixty five of these women are serving sentences of longer than 25 years. Although the number of women held in correctional centres is by far lower than that of men, it is interesting to note that, with the exception of sexual crimes, the number of women sentenced for aggressive crimes (1 099) and economic crimes (999) is equally high. In 2006/07, the number of women in correctional centres increased by 243 as compared to 2005/06 financial year. These women are housed in eight female correctional centres and seventy-two (72) centres which accommodate both males and females- separately.

Generally, women do not experience overcrowding in correctional centres given their small number as compared to men. However, the Annual Report (2005/06) of the Inspecting Judge of Prisons revealed that in 2005/06 financial year, Thohoyandou female prisons and Durban female prison were overcrowded. Thohoyandou female prison had the capacity of 134 but 324 (242%) prisoners were found, whereas Durban female prison had the capacity for 244 but it was accommodating 389 (159%) female offenders. Lack of contact with their families and children remains one of the concerns for female offenders. This occurs because there are relatively few female correctional centres in the country and as a result they have to be incarcerated in centres far from their families. Where there are few women in a section of a prison, there is likelihood of a lack of delivery of developmental programmes for these women as it may not be economical or practical for the Department to provide these services.

Of particular concern for the Department of Correctional Services are female offenders with babies. The White Paper on Corrections mandates the Department of Correctional Services to provide "mother and child units. within correctional centres with separate sleeping accommodation for mothers and children, as well as a creche facility. As of 31 March 2007, 168 babies (younger than 5 years of age) were in prisons with their mothers.43 The fate of these babies is being decided in Parliament through the Correctional Services Amendment Bill [B32-2007]. This Bill which is currently before the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) includes a clause to reduce the age that babies may stay with their mothers in prison from five years to two years of age.

One of the striking features in the Department of Correctional Services is the presence of young offenders. Youth are defined as offenders under the age of 25 years. At the end of November 2007, a total of 60 174 (37%) youth were in correctional centres across the country. Of these 24 595 were unsentenced and 35 579 were sentenced. Most of these young people (18 829 or 31 %) were sentenced for aggressive crimes followed by economic crimes (10 054 or 17%). Many of these young offenders are incarcerated in the thirteen (13) Youth Correctional Centres in South Africa namely: Hawequa, Brandvlei, Drankestein Medium B, and Pol/smoor Medium A in the Western Cape;,Rustenburg in the North West province; Barberton Town in Mpumalanga; Durban and Ekuseni in KwaZulu-Natal; Groenpunt and Kroonstad in the Free State; and Leeukop, Emthonjeni and Boksburg in Gauteng. The aim of youth centres is the provision of distinctive custodial, development and treatment programmes, as well as spiritual care, in an environment conducive to the care, and development of youth to participate and develop their potential. Due to the large number of young offenders, it is not possible to house all of them within these thirteen centres.

In calling for improved service delivery to vulnerable groups, the State of the Nation Address indirectly emphasises needs-based rehabilitation programmes and skills development and training for young people. Young people fall into a category of people who, even after serving a lengthy sentence, still have a chance to make something of their lives.

The number of children in correctional centres can be seen as an indication as to whether the principle of detention as a last resort and for the shortest period of time is being given practical effect. In November 2007, there were 2 121 children under the age of 18 in correctional centres of which 1 176 were sentenced and 945 were unsentenced. Reduction in the number of children in prison has been a key priority identified in previous State of the Nation Addresses. The Department is working closely with a number of role-players, including the Department of Social Development to ensure that children in prisons are removed to secure care facilities. The passing of the Child Justice Bill (B49-2002) which is currently before Parliament will go a long way in addressing issues of children in conflict with the law.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PARLIAMENT FOR 2008

The following are some of the implication for Parliament arising from key focus areas and the broader themes relevant to the area of corrections as outlined in the 2008 State of the Nation Address:

· Parliament should monitor iniatives included in the revamp of the criminal justice system including the implementation of the new management and coordinating structure within the criminal justice system.

· Parliamentary oversight structures over the criminal justice system departments (the Portfolio and Select Committees) need to collaborate more formally in order playa more effective role in oversight over the criminal justice system. The proposed establishment of new inter-sectoral management and coordination structures makes this an even more urgent necessity.

· Parliament should monitor the Department in terms of initiatives to address recidivism, including the extent of identification of the problem; systems to monitor, manage and track the issue of recidivism; and the implementation of targeted programmes to reduce the possibility of re-offence.

· Parliament should monitor possible problems around informing victims in relation to their involvement in parole hearings, and assist in the development of solutions to these problems.

· Parliament should be informed of measures developed to attract scarce skills and filling of critical vacant positions in the Department, the extent of success of these measure and the development of alternative creative solutions.

· Parliament should monitor conditions in which female offenders are incarcerated especially mothers with babies.

· Parliament should be informed about needs-driven rehabilitation programmes especially for youth in correctional centres and how these programmes empower youth for a successful reintegration after release.

· Parliament should continue to monitor progress with regard to removing children from correctional centres. All relevant Committees of Parliament should ensure that they participate in and are aware of discussions with regard to the Child Justice Bill and closely scrutinise possible implementation problems which may arise in each of the Departments with regard to the Bill, when it is eventually passed and enacted.

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