Slipping into Anarchy

Lloyd Vogelman

The Department of Correctional Services' announcement that it is to release more non-political prisoners is bewildering. While understanding the need to lessen overcrowding in prisons, the release of more criminals is likely to take South Africa further into the realm of anarchy and brutality.

The release of criminals would be understandable if there was evidence that the incidence of crime was decreasing in South Africa. But the crime statistics for January-May 1992 make sad reading. Compared with the overall figures for 1991, there has been an increase in every major crime with the exception of small decreases in car theft and housebreaking.

According to the figures, we are now averaging 52 murders a day compared with the average 40 murders per day last year. Serious assaults and armed robbery have also shown increases. There are, on average, 374 serious assaults and 135 armed robberies a day in South Africa.

Unfortunately these tragic figures do not tell the whole story since thousands of such offences go unreported.

It is of concern that the Department of Correctional Services can speak with such confidence about its success in rehabilitation and its administrative capability of supervising released offenders when its past record and the more recent bungled release of convicted bank robber and murderer, Lucky Malaza, shows the opposite.

Furthermore, even if the Department of Correctional Services' dubious claims that it has an 88 percent success rate in rehabilitation are correct, the effect of the release of these prisoners conveys a number of disturbing and destructive messages to South Africans.

The first is that the government is insensitive to the daily fears that South Africans experience about crime and violence. Given the incidence of crime and the furore over the release of criminals in 1991, it is incomprehensible that the government permits the further release of individuals who have in some way damaged the lives of other South Africans.

The second is it conveys to the victims of crime in South Africa that the trauma of their experience is not taken seriously. Victimisation involves loss, either physically or psychologically. Given the absence of any substantial programmes of victim aid in South Africa, victims of crime are mostly expected to cope with their sadness, fear, loss of dignity and the financial cost of crime by themselves.

The one sphere that victims of crime have come to partly rely on the government for is retribution. The early release of prisoners negates this.

It says to the victim that his or her offender only has to suffer limited negative consequences for the trauma and pain for which he or she is responsible.

Furthermore, it encourages the perception that the only means to satisfactorily obtain justice is to do it informally or outside the criminal justice system. In so doing, we create a cycle of informal retribution and revenge that is difficult to control and contain.

Third, the release of prisoners undermines the morale of law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. The arrest and conviction of any offender takes a great deal of time and effort. The early release of prisoners inevitably raises the question in the minds of such officials as to what the purpose of their work is. There are already serious problems with policing in South Africa.

Reduction in morale will further hamper police efforts in reducing crime and amplify the daily criticisms levelled at the police.

Finally, the early release of prisoners informs potential criminals that the consequences of any offence need not be too deleterious. Given the fact that a primary deterrent of crime is the possibility of imprisonment, the early release of prisoners can serve only to heighten the incidence of violence and crime in South Africa.

If there is to be any reduction in crime, not only are we in need of democratic political solutions, socio-economic development, a co-ordinated anti-crime programme and a well-trained, non-partisan and community-oriented police force, but also a social system which breaks the confidence of criminals and potential offenders and indicates to the survivors of crime that they have not been forgotten.

Lloyd Vogelman is a founder and former Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

In the Sunday Times, 18 October 1992.

© Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation