Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, Loretta Jacobus at the 'Second Chance Conference - the award and reintegration strategies ' conference

Programme Director,
Trustees of the International Award Association,
Sister Judith and David Clarke and staff of the International Secretariat,
Clewlow (and trustees of The President's Award for Youth Empowerment,
Martin Scholtz, CEO of the Award Programme in South Africa,
Honoured delegates from 17 countries around the world,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen

It is such a pleasure for me to welcome all of you to South Africa, a country full of possibilities for all its people and visitors. As our 'teenage' democracy is grappling with major challenges of social cohesion, dealing with the legacy of a brutal system of apartheid, poverty, crime and spatial under-development that affects the majority of its citizens, it is also creating exciting, numerous opportunities. Choosing South Africa as your venue for this Global Conference is spot on, because we are at a critical stage of driving the implementation of a dynamic constitutional, legislative and policy framework that is hailed internationally as one of the best in the world.

I am happy to say The President's Award - right from the outset of this young democracy - built a formidable partnership with the Department of Correctional Services, that kicked off with only 14 offenders participating from St Albans Correctional Centre in 1994, to over 20 000 volunteer young offenders by 2007 spanning over 50 correctional centres nationally, a phenomenal development indeed.

You have also chosen August - a month we have dedicated for the celebration of South African women's triumphant spirit that inspired them to brave life odds to ensure a better life for all our people. Just four days ago President Thabo Mbeki led a tribute to the heroines of 1956 that marched to the Union buildings to declare their rejection of apartheid and its practices as an abomination to human kind. We also use this period to take stock of the progress made towards the realisation of those pioneers' vision of a better life for all.

Our verdict thus far tells of a best constitutional, legislative and policy framework whose implementation cries for multiplication of efforts by all involved, because the majority of women and children are still facing the reality of abject poverty, underdevelopment and gender based violence perpetuated by not just their spouses but their children.

The increasing numbers of young people charged with and convicted of violent and aggressive crimes including rape and murder is a graphic representation of the challenges as a nation in general and the Department of Correctional Services in particular are grappling with. These are manifestations of among others deep rooted gender based stereotypes, absence of hope and poor self-esteem resulting from poverty and dysfunctional families that continue to produce degenerated individuals. In our White Paper on Corrections in South Africa passed by Cabinet in February 2005 we call for the creation of a societal environment with a correcting influence, which is a responsibility of all community, national and international players.

Therefore, your contribution in addressing these challenges through The President's Award programme will always be cherished by Correctional Services and our nation. Your involvement and participation rejuvenates us to spare no energy in optimising corrections and rehabilitation programmes aimed at young offenders and all other categories of offenders.

We wish to join you in marking the 51 anniversary of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh himself for spearheading this initiative that has since grown to cover over 120 countries of the world, promoting values and principles that remain a relevant today as they were 51 years ago.

In the same vain I also wish to pay tribute to South Africa's father of Democracy, human rights and development, our first Democratic President, Nelson Mandela.

He accepted being a Patron of The President's Award for Youth Empowerment in 1994 and had remained an inspiration to many participating offenders who soldiered through the challenging programme in order to meet u-Tata u-Mandela at the Gold Award Ceremony. Driven by his profound belief in the goodness of humanity, President Nelson Mandela said (I am paraphrasing him) a nation's development should be assessed in terms of how it treats its lowest and weakest citizens which include women, children and offenders.

The visionary leadership demonstrated by these statesmen will always inspire us to strive for a better life for all against many societal odds.

Correctional Services is undergoing a profound change. We are transforming a prison system characterised by a dehumanising culture that earned prisons a grading of 'Universities of Crime' where naïve and weaker young and first time offenders are groomed to be hardened criminals. We are building a Correctional System that has the requisite capacity to re-humanise and mould crashed personalities that have lost their human character through intensive and extensive correction and rehabilitation programmes.

We have committed ourselves to turn around every prison warder whose sole focus is security into a correctional official whose character is defined by a focus on rehabilitation of offenders for successful social re-integration. We hope to achieve these ideals through various interventions including the appropriate recruitment, training, retraining and creation of an encouraging environment for all workers. We are marching towards these ideals, however there is still 'a long walk' to their realisation because of numerous societal and institutional factors that continuously militate against the attainment of our goals.

These include the changing profile of our Awaiting Trial Detainees (ATDs) and sentenced offenders in all categories. Over the last seven years numbers of offenders sentenced for aggressive crimes increased by 12%, from 44,93% of the total population in 2000 to 56,96% in 2006. What is even more disturbing is that these trends are also registered among children and women categories with numbers of children sentenced for aggressive crime surpassing numbers of those sentenced for economic and poverty related crimes.

These developments have major policy and resource implications for our nation.
More offenders are occupying more bed spaces for much longer, putting a strain on available facilities which are already congested. If the trend is sustained there will be lesser and lesser offenders qualifying for rehabilitation programmes as more will be placed in maximum security facilities where greater emphasis is on security to prevent escapes than on rehabilitation. With an expectation to declare, upgrade or build more maximum facilities to meet the new needs more human resources will have to be deployed for addressing this challenge.

The role of the President's Awards for young offenders becomes more and more critical in the scenario I have tried to paint and we will also have to consider how we can broaden the scope and the reach of the programme and the levels of collaboration with various players. Intervention is required for all 'young stars' at risk of being 'young offenders' with dedicated youth intervention programmes probably similar to what the Taiwanese are doing and what has been introduced by the Russians. We need to intensify programmes aimed at ameliorating the effect of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment on young people through teaching of national values, norms and discipline through youth camps, critical skills required by the economy to reduce huge unemployment while there are high vacancy rates in some fields.

We must invest more intensively in prevention programmes to help youth in self-discovery, self-development, self-reliance, responsibility and service to the community. The Award Programme in South Africa is addressing this through their Phakama Programme which focuses on young people in marginalised communities. We need to sustain the interventions to rehabilitate and correct those that have fallen foul of the law and also assist in ensuring successful social re-integration after their release from correctional centres.

In the light of growing sexual offences with sentenced offender population increasing from 11,72% in 2000 to 15,84% in 2006, The President's Award scheme needs to introduce and emphasise gender education and training for young offenders in order to help uproot the entrenched stereotypes that land many male offenders behind bars. Women and children must feel safer and secure in their environment, because our nation cannot celebrate freedom and prosperity while an overwhelming majority is in fear, in chains and is not enjoying these freedoms.

As the country is experiencing a surge in crime the question of how effective is our role as Correctional Services at the tail end of the criminal justice system in preventing and fighting crime is gaining intensity. As we strongly believe that corrections is a societal responsibility, the platforms like this conference should be appreciated and broadened with round table discussions that would inform policy and its implementation. The sharing of best practices will definitely help us sharpen our interventions aimed at building a correctional system in South Africa that all can be proud of.

I have noted with great appreciation the positive feedback from participating officials and offenders in my department who have unanimously praised your programme as helping in building self-esteem, a positive outlook of life and a hope for the future. Many have acknowledged that the programme has given them a new perspective of life with unprecedented appreciate of humanity and without uncontrolled anger and conflict.

To carry the triumphant spirit of the 1956 women that marched against oppression, we endeavour to expand the reach of The President's Award within our facilities and to do all in our power to protect women and children through rehabilitating young offenders and ensuring public safety and security from those with limited chances of rehabilitation.

I can assure you that you will enjoy your stay in South Africa and that you will find reasons for coming back even before the 2010 World Soccer Spectacular.

May your deliberation be as fruitful as ever, and may your conference be one of the most memorable ones in the history of The International Award.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
13 August 2007