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DA: Werna Horn: Address by DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, on the Correctional Services Budget Vote debate, Parliament (03/05/2016)

DA: Werna Horn: Address by DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, on the Correctional Services Budget Vote debate, Parliament (03/05/2016)

4th May 2016

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On 16 July 2014, in his first Correctional Services budget speech, the Minister – with all the promise a new broom holds – not only correctly identified overcrowding of correctional centres as the big issue facing this Department, but also promised that this Department was poised to take delivery of services to what he called “unprecedentedly higher levels”.

Reduction of overcrowding is a prerequisite for improvement in service delivery by DCS. Overcrowding impacts detrimentally on every function of Correctional Services. Overcrowding places an undue burden on the employees of Correctional Services. It compounds all of the social ills associated with correctional facilities, creates a dangerous working environment and ultimately is possibly the main reason for the constant struggle of DCS to fill funded vacant positions and retain its workforce. Overcrowding furthermore impacts very negatively on the rehabilitation and social re-integration of inmates.

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Today, nearly two years later, the persistence of overcrowding, the failure to implement solutions and the consequences of the continued overcrowding of our correctional facilities gives us a near perfect snapshot of what is awry with correctional services.

In that maiden speech the Minister promised a multi-pronged overcrowding management strategy, including the building of additional bed spaces, better management of the parole system and promotion of successful social re-integration and reduction of re-offending.

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In the DCS budget of 2014 an allocation of just more than R1 billion, over the medium term up to and including the 2016/17 budget, was made with a view to create 5 900 additional bed spaces.

Implementation however did not materialise. In 2014/15, none of the planned 1081 bed spaces materialised, in 2015/16 the target was adjusted downwards to 518 and therefore even if against all realistic expectations the plan to increase the number of bed spaces this year by 925 succeeds the Minister will still fail spectacularly to honour the promise made in his maiden speech.

And it’s not as if this failure happened overnight or without warning. Fact is that we have heard the same lame excuses of problems with DPW and contractors every time we have tried in Committee to engage about this issue – without ever seeing any sign of the political will needed on the part of the Minister to resolve this issue.

What we rather have seen is new, even more bloated promises. In the Forward to the 2015/16 APP of the Department the Minister, without showing any signs of shame or admitting failure to meet his previous promises, now promise the creation of 6787 new bed spaces by 2019/20.

Regarding the solution now proposed of DCS becoming self-sufficient in respect of infrastructure projects, we believe this is nothing more than a facile attempt to divert attention, because such an approach simply does not tie in with the ANC’s insistence that nothing serious is wrong with DPW.

Chair: In 2014 the Minister also promised broadening the use of electronic monitoring. Unfortunately ever since July 2014, when the use of about 1 000 electronic tags were introduced, nothing has been done to broaden the use of this modern monitoring system. Yet another broken promise.

In 2014 the Minister targeted what he called “better management of the parole system” as part of the solution to overcrowding. Indeed, at the time we were in need of a Minister who would be able to administer parole in a fair, transparent, rational manner – free of political considerations. This Minister has turned out not to be that Minister.

The actions and decisions of Minister Masutha regarding parole has only strengthened the public perception that this government only cares to involve itself with high profile parole applications and then simply cannot deal with it in the a-political manner needed to re-build public trust in the parole system.

No wonder then that the promise to address recidivism by improving rehabilitation and social re-integration of inmates has also been little more than promises, with these programmes simply not being able to yield quality results in the suffocating environment created by overcrowding.

Chair: DCS, despite having many committed capable officials, continues to struggle. The failure of this Minister to constructively lead DCS does not help. The fact that he has a Deputy who, apart from having an insatiable appetite for travel to just about anywhere but the Portfolio Committee where he has been conspicuously absent for the whole of this term, and who apparently does very little else, is not assisting the Minister or DCS.

Two years down the line, DCS is again in serious need of a new broom.

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