Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation

Criminal Justice Programme

Our Programme and its Projects

Prisons and Penal Reform

Since 1994, South Africa's prison population has grown alarmingly. In June 2002, prisons housed up to 177 440 prisoners and were 161% full nationally.

In the last few years there have been some very positive developments around prisons and penal reform, including the recognition of prisoners' rights, amendments to the correctional services legislation, and changes in policy governing the treatment of prisoners, safe custody and the implementation of reintegration and development programmes.

Yet it is difficult to implement these positive developments in light of prison overcrowding and relative understaffing of the prisons. To add to this there has recently been exposure of alleged corruption and maladministration in prisons through evidence presented to the Jali Commission of Enquiry into corruption in prisons. Corruption makes it almost impossible for committed correctional officials to implement new policies and render effective services. Through our Programme and our projects we aim to make a positive impact within this challenging context.

Human rights and treatment of prisoners

Our work aims to promote a culture in which prisoners are respected and treated with dignity. Since most prisoners are released into society at some stage, it is important that they be given every opportunity for positive development while in prison, and of being integrated into society when they are released.

The CJP monitors the development and implementation of policy around human rights and treatment of prisoners. We make relevant inputs into this process where appropriate. In addition to policy work, we have conducted human rights training for prisoners and members of the Department of Correctional Services. We also participated in training officers of the Judicial Inspectorate and independent prison visitors.

We do policy research on penal reform. See article Reform and Stasis: Transformation in South African Prisons.

For more information about this work, contact Amanda Dissel at adissel@csvr.org.za

Racism and discrimination in prisons

Although South Africa's prison population is roughly representative of the racial demographics of the country, there are issues of discrimination that affect both staff and inmates. This is obviously a cause for concern because of the human rights issues at hand, and because of tremendous tension and volatility that builds up in discriminatory environments.

This is why we partnered with Penal Reform International (PRI) to conduct a study on racism and discrimination in South African prisons. The research report is called Racism and Discrimination in the South African Penal System. It traces the legacy of apartheid in the penal system and recommends specific strategies for tackling racism more directly. To order a copy, contact Bilkees Vawda at bvawda@csvr.org.za

For more information about this work contact Amanda Dissel at adissel@csvr.org.za

Sex, sexual violence and coercion in prisons

Those who have any knowledge of life in South African prisons know that sex, sexual violence and varying levels of sexual coercion do occur. But the subject of sex in prison tends to remain an uncomfortable one and has received little in-depth attention. Yet it impacts enormously on the lives of prisoners, prison communities and - as prisoners are released - on society outside of prisons.

It is crucial that we have a better understanding of sexual interactions and violations amongst male prisoners. This is especially because of the reportedly high incidence of sexual violence behind prison walls, the transmission of HIV, and the potential challenges that various sexual experiences in prison may pose for offenders when they are released. Prison communities and our society as a whole is affected. Prison is a powerful socialising experience that former prisoners inevitably infuse in their world outside prison once they are released.

Our research

In 2001 and 2002 we conducted research with prisoners and ex-prisoners to understand the context in which sex relations and sexual violence occur inside male prisons, and of their relationship to inmate subculture, gang activity and notions of dominant masculinity. Our research also looks at how sexual violence and coercion in prison impacts both on prisoners and on society, when prisoners are released.

Through offering a deeper understanding of these issues, we hope to play a part in helping to reduce sexual violence and coercion in prisons, and to contribute to healing its effects.

You can order our research report titled Daai Ding: Sex, sexual violence and coercion in men's prisons by contacting Bilkees Vawda at bvawda@csvr.org.za.

You can find out more about this work by contacting Sasha Gear at sgear@csvr.org.za or visiting our Publications.

Young offenders

Over the last three years we have been involved in research and interventions which aim to understand the nature and causes of youth criminal behaviour. Through our work, we have developed an understanding of the problems and issues facing young people in prison, as well as the problem of them lapsing into crime once out of prison.

Vuka S'hambe programmes

Arising from our research we have initiated life skills programmes for young women and men offenders in Johannesburg prison. We aim to build their resilience so that they can cope better in prison, and learn skills that will help them to contribute positively to society when they leave prison. We also encourage young offenders to take greater personal responsibility for their crime, and to create a healing environment for the victim.

Our specific objectives are that, after participating in the CJP life skills programme young offenders will:

A long-term aim is to contribute to breaking the cycle of violence in youth. Because young people in prisons are highly vulnerable to returning to crime when they are released, we develop interventions that will help them build their resistance to this.

The life skills programme helps young offenders to understand themselves, and to deal with their emotions. The methods we use include music, relaxation techniques, painting, drawing and clay modelling, journal writing, role-plays, rituals and metaphors.

We have had positive responses about our impact from the young participants, and from correctional services officials. We will publish an impact evaluation at the end of 2002, which will help inform future work.

We have also initiated a networking process with other young offender service providers and with the Department of Correctional Services.

To find out more contact Amanda Dissel adissel@csvr.org.za

Prison violence and gangs

In the context of prison overcrowding, we are concerned that levels of violence in prisons are unacceptably high. Prison gangs are one of the primary vehicles for the perpetration of this violence. Yet little is known about prison violence and how it occurs. The CJP has applied to the Department of Correctional Services for permission to conduct an ethnographic research study on prison gangs.

 

Restorative Justice

"Restorative justice grew out of dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system and its limitations in dealing with issues of crime between the victim and the offender in a more restoring and balanced way. South Africa, having inherited the accusative type of justice system, which is based on punishment, struggles to recognise the victim and the community as key role players in the adjudication of conflict between the victim and the offender face to face. Restorative justice provides an opportunity for dealing with issues of crime in a more comprehensive manner." - Tshegofatso Maswabi, Restorative Justice Initiative project manager

The Restorative Justice Initiative (RJI)

The RJI is a consortium of eight non-governmental organisations. We seek alternative ways to raise awareness and develop a realistic, dynamic and unique South African restorative justice paradigm. The Department of Correctional Services has recently adopted restorative justice as one of its strategies.

The RJI works with organisations that are interested in promoting restorative justice principles and practices. The RJI is made up of these organisations, which serve on its steering committee:

The RJI is currently hosted at CSVR.

The RJI aims to feed into the global justice movement through promoting a restorative justice understanding and practice nationally and internationally. We will do this by offering services in resources, networking, advocacy, research, and project development. We will achieve this through partnerships and alliances.

Victim-offender Conferencing Project

The Victim-offender Conferencing (VOC) Project is the RJI's flagship project. The VOC Project is a creative community-based alternative to dealing with human issues of crime. It does this through face-to-face interaction between offenders, their victims, their respective families and to some extent appointed agents. Highly skilled community mediators/facilitators guide the process. The VOC Project mainly deals with family violence and assault cases that the courts and other agencies refer to it. The process allows the community to play a role in bringing peace to itself.

The VOC Project promotes a broad-based three-tier partnership between itself, the government departments of justice, police, correctional services and welfare, and non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations.

Research

To find out more about the RJI's work, contact Tshegofatso Maswabi at rji@rjc.co.za and visit our Publications section of this site.

Also, see the Restorative Justice Centre: http://www.rjc.co.za

 

Policing

During the apartheid era police focused on suppressing political opposition. To do this they relied extensively on the use of force, torture and fear. Since the birth of democracy in South Africa, police officers are expected to provide professional policing services within a human rights framework. They have to do this in a high crime environment along with increasing public pressure for 'zero tolerance' and harsher treatment of suspects and offenders.

Overview of our work in the field of police integrity, accountability and human rights

Since 1989 the CJP's policing unit has focused on a wide range of issues relating to police transformation in South Africa. In particular, our work aims to support the establishment of accountable policing with integrity as an outcome of the transformation process. This involves working with both the South African Police Service (SAPS) and Metropolitan Police Departments (MPDs) at the local level.

Key areas of our current work in the field of police integrity, accountability and human rights include:

Our specialist knowledge in these fields provides the basis for work around other issues in the policing and criminal justice field, including crime statistics, community policing, and issues of management and leadership in police organisations.

Some examples of current and recent work include:

To find out more about our policing work, contact Gareth Newham at gnewham@csvr.org.za or David Bruce at dbruce@csvr.org.za. See our publications list for readings on this topic.

 

City Safety

Our City Safety project started in 2000 during dynamic and challenging times in South Africa. Many of the country's major cities were already considering establishing metropolitan police services, and were looking into how they could contribute to crime prevention. With the local government elections, unicity structures were established in our six largest urban centres. Local government has taken on new areas of responsibility, including crime reduction and prevention - and the task of enforcing new by-laws.

We tune our expertise into helping the cities grapple with and find solutions to the challenge of improving crime prevention, reducing crime and enforcing local by-laws. We have always maintained that effective crime reduction should include both understanding and addressing the social causes of crime as well as effective law enforcement. It is from this belief that we work.

Our work

Our work in the field of city safety is multi-facetted. We:

Our work takes place in the context of increased public pressure to address crime, the increased responsibility that local governments have for crime reduction, and the newness for most cities to have to handle crime prevention and reduction.

Aims of our city safety project

Through our work we aim to:

Where we work

We work with South Africa's six largest cities: Cape Town, Durban, Ekurhuleni (East Rand), Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Metro (Port Elizabeth) and Tshwane (Pretoria).

Recent research reports

We have recently published research on the following topics:

Research themes we are pursuing include:

We attempt to ensure that our research is translated into interventions that will contribute to violence prevention and the promotion of reconciliation. We do this through training and facilitating workshops, for example.

Because of the nature of our work, we collaborate a great deal with other departments at the CSVR, thereby strengthening and cross-fertilising our work.

This project has ended. For further information please contact Amanda Dissel at adissel@csvr.org.za.

 

Rural Safety

Through South Africa's recent local government demarcation process, many metropolitan regions were expanded to incorporate large rural areas. The Rural Safety project will expand on the work of our City Safety project, and look at these rural parts of urban areas.

The project aims to provide knowledge about the nature of crime in rural areas, and to enhance local government's capacity to address rural safety needs.

The project's focus areas

We will focus on the three metropolitan areas most affected by the incorporation of the rural areas. They are the cities of Durban, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. These areas also present the diversity of South Africa's people and governance arrangements.

The study will focus on:

The project commenced in October 2002.

To find out more about this new project, contact Amanda Dissel at adissel@csvr.org.za

 
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