Management and Control of Prisons
by
Abbey Witbooi
Abbey Witbooi is the General Secretary of POPCRU.
Programme Director, distinguished guests, dear participants in this very important occasion, all protocols observed, I bring you warm greetings from the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU), from both membership as well as the Union leadership. I feel quite honoured and also privileged to have been invited and requested to deliver a paper concerning A New Decade of Criminal Justice in South Africa – Consolidating Transformation.
Introduction
In order to consolidate our democracy and more so to celebrate our decade of political achievement, it is important and necessary to hold more often these kinds of conferences. This should not be done only in our sector, but all sectors must engage in debates and discussions with a vision to shape the future policy direction.
Our sector, the criminal justice system is going through turbulent times in the history of our country. It is therefore, more necessary, now than at any other time in our life to engage in critical reflections and assessments of the key challenges and priorities in the sector. We have to work hard now to nurture our newly achieved democracy, so that we do not regret tomorrow that we did not do what we were supposed to do in giving the necessary ingredients to our democratic order to make it deliver the better life and service for all our citizens.
The central purpose of this conference as I understand it, is mainly to promote and share knowledge, skills and insights around criminal justice system transformation and crime prevention, to recognise achievements and models of good practise and more importantly, this should be seen as an effort to contribute to the development of a vision for the future of criminal justice and crime prevention in South Africa.
A. Key factors contributing to the crisis in the prison system
A1 Shortage of staff or Understaffing
A1.1 Intransigency on the part of the Department of Correctional Services concerning this issue is very disappointing. This matter has been addressed to the department in a number of meetings by POPCRU; however, no fruitful results have been produced.
A1.2 Current statistics reveal that more than ten thousand members understaff the Department of Correctional Services. This has been exacerbated by the fact that the department has not recruited entry-level staff since 2003. Between the periods March 2003 – March 2004 the department lost more than one thousand employees due to terminations.
A1.3 Due to the fact that the department of Correctional Services is not a seven – day week establishment, employees are more often than not compelled to work over weekends as overtime. This practice has been in existence since 1978.
A1.4 According to Judge Fagan's recent analysis of the situation in the Department of Correctional Services, "number of wardens was allocated according to ideal capacity and not the actual prison population" (Sunday independent, 11 July, 2004).
A2 Overcrowding
A2.1 The latest statistics reveal that there are 73 000 more prisoners than capacity allows. Only 31 of South Africa's 240 prisons are at capacity, while more than half are more than 150 percent full and some, such as Umtata, are at 370 percent capacity.
A2.2 Judge Fagan also warned that "there are 40 000 people stuck in prisons because the courts do not work fast enough. Some prisoners are kept in jail purely because of magistrates judgement mistakes". Recent statistics also reveal that at Sun City Prison in Gauteng, a ward, which houses 38 juveniles at normal capacity, was found overflowing with 101 inmates (Ibid).
A2.3 Whilst the correctional facilities of the department are meant to house one hundred and fourteen thousand (114 000) inmates, the recent Judicial Inspectorate report of prisons reveals that there are more than one hundred and eighty seven thousand (187 000) inmates currently housed within the facilities.
A3 Incompetence
A3.1 There is no proper planning of managing resources. Recently, instead of filling the establishment at entry level where personnel is critically needed, the department has created a lot of senior management positions duplicating functions and tasks at Head Office.
B. What needs to be done to improve Prison Management, and Control and Order in Prisons, and to provide 'safe custody'?- It is important that managers who are affirmed to senior positions should undergo relevant training to adjust and make them equitably effective in their new tasks.
- Training should be given to new recruits, more so to those who join the Department in the middle and senior positions, with a view to educating and making them adjust to the policies and culture of the Criminal Justice System.
- Offer Promotion, recognition and reward to staff who have service, competency and initiative in their respective jobs. This should be done with a view to motivate and eliminate possibilities of mismanagement and mal – administration that might result in temptation of corruption because of disillusionment.
- Literally employ more staff so that they can manage and control the high volumes of inmates.
- Rehabilitative programmes must be improved and progressively modified to be in line with the needs of the democratic dispensation.
- Provide refresher courses to officials and relevant basic training to new recruits.
C. What are the best practices in addressing violence in prisons and control of prison gangs?
- Classify inmates according to severity of crime committed, sentences imposed and age.
- Recreational activities and facilities for inmates should be put in place for them to relax and distress.
D. What is the significance of initiatives to reduce the prison population or build new prisons?
- Introduce alternative sentences, for example, community service, and correctional supervision.
- Counselling to inmates on good behaviour.
- Judicial system should be effective and fast in dealing with matters.
- Justice cluster must meet often to address issues of common interest.
- Communities and civil society in general should be involved in determining better alternatives.
Thank you very much and I hope this contribution will make the difference in addressing our problems in the criminal justice system.
