Issued by the Ministry of Correctional Services
National Council of Provinces, 8 June 2000
Chairperson
Honourable Members and Delegates
I am honoured and privileged to present my Department's case in this Budget Vote Debate before this Council.
I have recently come under severe criticism from human rights organisations representing the rights of prisoners for failing to take decisive action to avert the impending crises in our prisons caused by overcrowding. When I introduced the Correctional Services debate in the National Assembly on the 12th of May 2000, I made a passionate plea for the recognition and acceptance of the correctional system as an integral part of the governance of this country.
I believe that as a nation we are still trapped in the legacy of our shameful past in our understanding of the role and objectives of the correctional system. As way back as 1923 the role and objectives of the correctional system were already well understood as articulated by Sir Winston Churchill when he remarked as follows:
"The mood and temper of the public with regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm, dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused, and even of the convicted, criminal against the State - a constant heart searching by all charged with the duty of punishment - a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry those who have paid their due in the hard coinage of punishment; tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerative processes; unfailing faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man. These are the symbols, which, in the treatment of crime and the criminal, mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation."
These powerful words of inspiration are from one of the greatest visionaries of our time. It is my mission whilst serving as Minister of Correctional Services to inculcate and promote this vision of the criminal justice system into a common vision shared by most South Africans.
As I discussed briefly in the National Assembly, prison crises can only be understood in terms of the political environment in which the criminal justice system is located. In our situation, the major players representing the various special interests groups in the correctional services system are the media, legislators, the judiciary, human rights groups, labour unions, and prisoners. The relative powers and/or influence wielded by these groups and the interests they pursue shape the course of prison system crises.
The main functional areas of the correctional system are incarceration, care of offenders, development of offenders and community corrections. The incarceration function is mainly concerned with offender control by providing security and prison services to prevent, or at least to minimise, possibilities of escape, to ensure safe custody through good order and discipline within prison and rendering administrative and staff services. Traditionally the incarceration function has always received the highest priority in the budget allocation. Although this budget vote under discussion has made some significant steps forward in transforming the allocation of resources in the correctional system, there are still areas of grave concern, which require further improvement. Whilst the allocation for incarceration has increased by 15.0%, care of offenders, which involves the actual physical care and the health care of prisoners, has only increased by 6.7%. A marked increase of 55.9% has been made with regard to community corrections. Development of offenders received a satisfactory 14.2% increase, compared to the -0.1% decrease in the allocation for re-integration into the community.
In line with our vision for the transformed correctional services system we can no longer just concern ourselves with incarceration but must also see to it that the system adequately caters for need-based developmental and rehabilitative offender programmes and the proper care of offenders. The challenge ahead of us is to work out an acceptable compromise through striking a proper balance between the competing interests of public safety and offender care and rehabilitation within the constraints of a limited budget. Incarceration is paramount with regard to offenders who have committed serious offences. It is therefore not difficult to see how a much-publicised escape or a large-scale disturbance may precipitate a crisis that is likely to result in an immediate shift of resources from the provisioning of adequate conditions to the functions of security and control. Prison security and offender control have a huge impact on our budget as they rely heavily on manpower, equipment, IT expertise, architecture, categorisation of prisoners and routine procedures.
The over concentration of resources on security and control at the expense of offender care and rehabilitative development programmes is an inescapable consequence of the history of where we come from as a department. As I already remarked in the National Assembly on the 12th of May, it is an indisputable fact that the vast majority of the inmates in our prison system are from the previously disadvantaged groups who are unskilled and of little value in the labour market. It is our responsibility as Correctional Services to see to it that they too are the beneficiaries of the new democratic dispensation by providing them with the necessary basic skills to better their chances of becoming economically active by getting formal employment in the labour market, and thus helping to break the cycle of crime. Furthermore, the provisioning of conditions of detention that are consistent with human dignity to all detained persons in terms of section 35 of the Constitution is a constitutional directive principle.
We cannot compromise on any of the above-mentioned functional areas of the Department without jeopardising our core business objectives. It would therefore appear that, unless a corresponding increase is made to our total budget allocation in line with the ever-increasing population of inmates in our prisons, we are soon reaching a stage were the system will completely collapse. We are of course mindful of the fact that we not the only department that is operating under severe financial constraints. Without going into any detail, the poor conditions and crises in many of our provincial hospitals is a clear illustration of this point. Therefore, whilst insisting on increased funding, we must simultaneously focus our efforts on developing appropriate reductionist strategies to counter the problem of overcrowding and diminishing resources to enable us to meet both our constitutional and international obligations regarding the treatment of offenders and prevention of crime.
As I outlined briefly in the National Assembly, the problems facing the correctional system cannot be viewed in isolation of what is taking place in the other core departments of the criminal justice system. President Mbeki's visionary intervention in June last year to establish ministerial clusters has been the single most important step forward in bringing about the much-need co-operation between the core departments of the criminal justice system to develop an integrated interdepartmental approach to crime prevention. Already, through the clustering approach we have been able to formulate and embark on the following strategies to combat overcrowding in prisons:
We also intend to intensify our self-sufficiency programmes through the optimal utilisation of prison labour to augment our budget. We will re-open the debate on the retention, by the prison system, of income generated through prison labour, and the costing and marketing of prison products. We also intend to take over the maintenance of our facilities from Public Works to take direct control and accountability for ensuring conditions consistent with human dignity in prisons. This is due to the fact that we have learned from experience that we are at bottom of the priority list of Public Works. We will further see to it that the implementation of the new unit management system stays firmly on course.
Awaiting trail prisoners
There is an alarmingly high number of awaiting trail prisoners in our custody which at the end of April 2000 stood at 62 952 constituting approximately 40% of the total number of prisoners in our facilities. From January 1995 to February of this year the number of awaiting trail prisoners increased by 158% compared to an increase of 15% for sentenced prisoners over the same period. On the 22nd of May 2000 I delivered a keynote address to officially open a senior management departmental workshop and in which I urged my officials to take an active role in promoting the work of the multi-sectoral task teams set up to identify blockages and devise solutions for the awaiting-trial prisoner problem.
The newly appointed Inspecting Judge, Mr Justice Fagan - a retired judge, has indicated that the problem of awaiting trials will receive priority attention from his office, stating that he intends to use his influence as a retired judge to sensitise the bench of the problems of overcrowding in prisons. He has also indicated that he intends to fast track the implementation of Correctional Services Act, 1998 (the Act) with regard to the appointment of independent visitors.
Early release
The implementation of the new system of Parole Boards is also receiving priority after a minor set back due to the unavailability of full-time ex-officio members from the Department of Justice and SAPS as required in terms of the Act, because of budgetary constraints experienced by the two departments. As per agreement by all departments concerned, a suitable amendment of the Act to co-opt SAPS and Justice members on an ad hoc basis depending on the security aspects and/or other sensitivities for a given application would be submitted to Cabinet in the near future. As required in terms of the Act, the National Council for Correctional Services has already voiced its support for a draft amendment submitted to it for comment and advice.
Alternatives to incarceration
Alternatives to incarceration have been the subject of debate in many countries for many years. As far back as 1910 there was already a determination within the English Home Office to effect a reductionist policy and the principal initiative in setting this direction was taken by Winston Churchill. Similar to our own situation, the reductionist lobby in the English prison system was a reaction to the problem of overcrowding in that, by 1908 their prison population stood at 22 000, only marginally below the certified capacity of their prison system at the time. In a memorandum to the Prime Minister in September 1910, Churchill described the main problem as being, 'the immense number of committals of petty offenders to prison on short sentences'. We have a large number of petty offenders in our prison system especially young offenders. The 55% increase in the budget for community corrections sends a clear message about our intentions of using community corrections as a viable alternative to incarceration..
Electronic monitoring to strengthen and enhance community corrections as a viable alternative to incarceration in less serious offences has been tested and found to be a viable option to incarceration for the South African situation.
On the 31st of March 1999 Cabinet approved the implementation of electronic monitoring countrywide. After a lengthy tendering process the State Tender Board on the 24th of December 1999 awarded an electronic monitoring tender to a consultant to assist the Department with the formulation of technical specifications and business plan for the implementation of electronic monitoring countrywide. According to our plans, it is expected that electronic monitoring will be operational countrywide by the end of this financial year.
As I put it in the National Assembly, we view this project as an important milestone in the transformation of our correctional system. On the 22nd of May 2000 when I delivered my keynote address to the senior officials of the Department, I gave specific instructions for the preparation and submission to myself of an action plan to guarantee this result as soon as possible.
New prison facilities
We opened A new Youth Development Centre, Emthonjeni, near Pretoria with a capacity of 640 beds towards the end of last year. We have recently taken over the direct operation of Ekuseni Development Centre, following the expiration of the contract between the Department and the Joint Education Trust on the 30th of December last year. We will in the near future be officially opening three more prisons, namely, Kokstad with a capacity of 1440 beds, Empangeni with 1392 beds and Devon, our first pre-release centre, with 650 beds.
A new Public-Private Partnership programme better known as the Asset Procurement and Operating Partnership System (APOPS) has been implemented.
With the able assistance of the Department of Public Works, on the 24th of March 2000 I signed a concession agreement with Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts Pty (Ltd) (Ikwezi Consortium) for the construction of the first APOPS prison in South Africa to be built in Bloemfontein, which will accommodate 3028 prisoners. Construction work started on the 3rd of April 2000 and is due for completion on the first of October 2001. I am happy to announce that on the 8th of May 2000 I signed the Proclamation of this prison in terms of section 5 of the Correctional Services Act, 1998, which will be known as Mangaung Maximum Security Prison. We are also in the process of finalising negotiations for a concession contract with South African Custodial Services the second APOPS prison in Louis Trichardt, which will accommodate 2960 prisoners.
As discussed in the National Assembly, I have requested a full assessment of the adverse impact the envisaged "freezing" of financed posts in order to finance the APOPS projects is likely to have on effective delivery on our core business objectives, to be conducted by the Department. This I emphasised at the workshop must be conducted with a view to re-opening discussions with State Expenditure on our MTEF budgetary allocations. APOPS is an additional cost to the Department as part of our programme to provide additional prison accommodation to combat overcrowding.
Despite the problems and crises we are facing due to insufficient resources we have nonetheless made tremendous progress in the fight to prevent, or at least to minimise prison escapes. Even ultimate fortress prisons such as Alcatraz, the American prison, have not been immune from escapes. I have no doubt many of us watched in utter amazement the movie 'Escape from Alcatraz' in the eighties.
Following my direct personal intervention to hold anti-escape workshops in November and December of last year in all the nine provinces, we have managed to drastically reduce the number of escapes within a short space of time. We were able to identify the main causes of escapes and acted upon them. The following areas were identified as the main causes of escapes: negligence on the part of officials; corruption, which includes aiding of escapes; old and weak prison structures; and the shortage of staff. Since January 2000 serious disciplinary steps have been taken against officials charged with negligence or gross negligence with the result that out of a total of 19 officials disciplined, 2 were dismissed and 8 given final warnings. Although I believe it really still too early to draw any conclusive deductions regarding the success of the implementation of the strategies adopted at the workshops, the following figures are very encouraging and show that we can do something about this problem:
(Note: please contact department/ministry for these figures)
We have also been able focus and intensify the battle against HIV/AIDS in the prisons. Notwithstanding our liberal policies regarding the prohibition of mandatory testing for HIV/AIDS and maintaining separate facilities for HIV/AIDS infected offenders in prisons, which are in keeping with the constitutionally protected rights of bodily integrity and equality before the law, we have managed to implement effective HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in prisons. Health education on STD' and HIV/AIDS prevention on admission and constantly throughout incarceration is provided to offenders, and condoms are made freely available in the event of consensual sexual relations. Gang related incidents and activities are closely monitored and the separation, including transfer, of vulnerable offenders is encouraged. An effective HIV/AIDS prevention programme is firmly in place with HIV/AIDS focal persons appointed at each prison to promote awareness, support and capacity building efforts. There is also a provincial Health Co-ordinator for each province to monitor and ensure the implementation of the HIV/AIDS programme. Offenders who allege to have been raped are referred to a medical doctor for examination and treatment, and depending on the outcome of the medical examination, the affected offender will be taken for counselling and also monitored for possible sexually transmitted diseases.
As one of the outcomes of the departmental senior management workshop held of the 22nd to 24th of May, the department will submit an action plan setting out proper time frames and targets for each of the strategies discussed above to combat overcrowding. The Department will also plan for and hold a national symposium on Correctional Services to be attended by all the stakeholders in the correctional services system and other key players in the criminal justice system. It is envisaged that this symposium expected to take place at the end July of 2000, will serve as a precursor to a fully fledged White Paper on Correctional Services which will cover all policy aspects relating to the management of prisons and community corrections.
In conclusion, I wish to take this opportunity to pledge my commitment to work closely with provincial and local government structures in line with the principles of co-operative government and intergovernmental relations as championed in Chapter 3 of the Constitution. As Correctional Services we are mindful of the fact the successful implementation of our policies depends on the co-operation and support we receive with regard to the awareness created, at both provincial and local levels, to the real issues facing the correctional system. We are part and parcel of the safety and security establishment of this country and we fully recognise and appreciate our partnership with the public to provide a safe and secure environment for all. In this regard, I would like to congratulate and express my sincere thanks to the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Education for their participation in the Ncome Prison awareness campaigning to discourage youth in schools from engaging in criminal activities. This is an exemplary and noble programme, which must be supported by all provinces and be promoted and strengthened by the Department of Correctional Services as viable and sustainable programme to fight crime at provincial level.
I thank you.