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Integrated Justice System (IJS)
Introduction
The IJS, approved in 2002, aims to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of the entire criminal
justice process by increasing the probability of
successful investigation, prosecution, punishment
for priority crimes and ultimately rehabilitation
of offenders. A second version of the IJS was
published in May 2003. Issues receiving specific
attention include overcrowding in prisons and
awaiting-trial prisoner problems, as well as bail,
sentencing and plea-bargaining.
Government wants to eliminate duplication
of services and programmes at all levels. The
need for strategic alignment of cluster activities
has also been raised at a series of governmental
meetings and forums.
The benefits of proper alignment include:
- less duplication of services
- effective use of scarce and limited resources and skills
- joint strategic planning and a planned approach instead of simply reacting to problems.
The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster has structured itself to focus on two
main areas of responsibility, namely operational
and developmental issues relating to the justice
system, and improving the safety and security of
citizens.
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Modernising the justice system
This aspect includes establishing proper governance structures, effective monitoring mechanisms based on proper review findings and the integration and automation of the justice system.
The IJS Board Programme comprises the following:
- The Transversal Subprogramme which focuses on the enablement of interdepartmental information exchange and clusterwide performance-management information services through the established IJS Transversal Hub.
- Six departmental subprogrammes which focus on the modernisation of system
capabilities within departments. While each department within the JCPS Cluster must have its own IT plan to achieve its specific vision, mission and objectives, the IJS Board coordinates the broader and shared duty to integrate information flow throughout the CJS.
Projects undertaken in 2010 included:
- South African Police Service (SAPS): The e-Docket Scanning Solution had been deployed to 244 police stations by the end of March 2010.
- SAPS: Identification services: 192 digital-capturing booths to capture full-body images, facial images and the capturing of exhibits and 170 live-scan devices to digitally capture fingerprints (replacing the old ink fingerprint process) were rolled out.
- Department of Correctional Services: The Automated Personal Identity System, which is a photo and fingerprint biometric capturing facility, was rolled out to 16 of the 17 major correctional centres.
- Department of Social Development: By mid-2010, Part A of the Child Protection Register was developed and in the process of being rolled out.
- Department of Social Development: The development of the diversion and conversion registers was completed and scheduled for roll-out in the 2010/11 financial year.
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Child justice
The Child Justice Act, 2008 (Act 75 of 2008) [PDF] came into effect in April 2010.
The Intersectoral Committee on Child Justice (ISCCJ), comprising government departments and non-governmental bodies, was established by legislation to support policy matters and operational challenges in managing children in conflict with the law.
The CJA, 2008 introduces a CJS for children under the age of 18 years who are in conflict with the law.
Such children who allegedly commit crimes, will be handled in terms of specific procedures. For example, a preliminary inquiry is held prior to the first court appearance and takes place within 48 hours of arrest.
The preliminary inquiry is more of a inquisitorial procedure than an adversarial procedure. The magistrate, the child, the parents, the prosecutor, the probation officer and the arresting officer are present at the preliminary inquiry. A legal-aid attorney may also be present. They examine the factors that may have influenced the child to commit the crime concerned and determine ways of assisting the child to acknowledge his or her wrongdoing.
If the child shows remorse, a plan is developed to address the crime in such a way that the child does not fall into a cycle of crime and violence.
The plan could involve a diversion option for an offence committed by the child, away from the mainstream CJS. The child may be ordered to attend, among other things, a life-skills, anger-management or substance-abuse programme as a way of addressing the underlying problem that led the child to commit the crime/s.
These diversion programmes form part of the sentencing options available to the magistrate and are provided for in Chapter 10 of the CJA, 2008. Sentencing options include:
- community-based interventions – diversion programmes
- restorative justice sentences, such as family-group conferences and victim-offender mediation
- fines or alternative fines, which may include symbolic restitution, payment of compensation or any other option that the court deems fit and proper
- sentences involving correctional supervision
- compulsory attendance of a non-custodial sanctions programme
- sentences of compulsory residence in a child and youth-care centre
- direct imprisonment.
The child's compliance with the diversion order is monitored and reported on back to court.
The Act balances the rights and responsibilities of the child offender, the victim, the family and the community. It takes into consideration the impact of the offence on the victim, by means of a victim-impact statement. The statement reflects the physical, psychological, social, financial or any other consequences of the offence for the victim.
This provision allows for a healing and conciliatory process to take place and further expands and entrenches the notion of restorative justice. It also makes it easier to facilitate the rehabilitation and integration of the child offender into society.
The Department of Social Development has 33 secure-care facilities for children awaiting trial countrywide and was expected to open six more in 2010/11. Government is planning to build a further 18 facilities during the next three financial years.
Apart from the provisions of the CJA, 2008, children's interests are also protected in the Children's Act, 2005, (Act 38 of 2005) [PDF], and the Sexual Offences Amendment Act, 2007 (Act 32 of 2007) [PDF].
Government received R30 million to implement the CJA, 2008 during 2010/11. This will be used to appoint dedicated child-justice court clerks, prosecutors, legal-aid child attorneys, and for training and awareness campaigns.
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Children awaiting trial
The national and provincial focus to fast-track all children awaiting trial in correctional centres and police cells has led to a reduction in children awaiting trial.
Specific interventions to address the backlog of cases pending trial include moving away from placing children who are in trouble with the law in correctional detention centres. Children awaiting trial will be placed under home-based supervision, in places of safety or in the care of parents or caregivers.
Two one-stop child-justice centres have been established in Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein. Port Nolloth is mainly used as a crime-prevention centre by the Department of Social Development. With the implementation of the CJA, 2008, the various cluster departments have drafted guidelines on the establishment and management of one-stop child-justice centres, which were expected to be submitted to the ISCCJ, for approval during 2010.
With the implementation of the CJA, 2008, the departments have gone ahead with practical steps to improve the lives of children going through the CJS. The number of children being diverted from the CJS during the past five years has increased every year.
During 2002, an average of 2 269 children were awaiting trial each month in prisons. This decreased to an average of 1 192 a month during 2007. In June 2010, only 297 children were awaiting trial in prisons.
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Implementation of the Children’s
Act, 2005
Child Protection Week during May 2010 marked the launch of the Children’s
Act, 2005 (Act 38 of 2005) [PDF] , which came into effect on 1 April
2010. The Act sets out to:
- promote the preservation and strengthening of families
- give effect to certain constitutional rights of children
- give effect to the country's obligations concerning the well-being of children in terms of binding international instruments
- provide for structures, services and means for promoting and monitoring the sound physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional and social development of children
- strengthen and develop community structures, which can assist in providing care and protection for children
- protect children from discrimination, exploitation and any other physical, emotional or moral harm or hazards
- provide care and protection for children in need
- recognise the special needs of children with disabilities
- generally promote the protection, development and well-being of children.
Section 28(3) of the Constitution provides that a child is anyone under the age of 18 years. All children's rights are protected through court processes, and the department therefore foresees that courts will be requested to help protect and enforce children's rights in a rights-based approach.
The department believes that approaching the courts should be a measure of last resort. The department started consultations with the relevant role players in this regard in mid-2010.
The first port of call for the protection, promotion and realisation of children's rights should be the children's families, caregivers, the community and service-delivery departments.
For this purpose, measures to resolve disputes outside the formal court procedures have also been provided for in the Children's Courts Chapter of the Children's Act, 2005, such as family-group conferences, mediation services and pre-trial conferences.
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Restorative justice
Restorative justice is a response to crime that focuses on the losses suffered by victims, holding offenders accountable for the harm they have caused and building peace
in communities.
As defined by the Justice, Crime Prenvention and Security (JCPS) Cluster, the restorative-justice concept is an approach to justice that aims to involve the parties to a dispute and others affected by the harm (victims, offenders, families concerned and community members) in collectively identifying harms, needs and obligations through accepting responsibilities, making restitution and taking measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident. This may be applied at
any appropriate stage after the incident.
Alternative dispute resolution is defined as the disposal of disputes outside the formal court proceedings. The processes and mechanisms may or may not include the
restorative-justice approach.
Restorative-justice strategies, programmes and processes in the criminal justice system are in place to try to heal the harm caused by the crime or offence, from a holistic point of view, for the victim, the offender and the community concerned, which will lead towards rebuilding broken relationships and encourage
social justice and social dialogue.
Any restorative-justice option, which may include but not be limited to victim-offender mediation or a family-group conference, is
always voluntary for the victim involved.
Therefore, such programmes and/or strategies will not be forced upon the victim of
any crime or offence.
The JCPS Restorative-Justice Task Team, under the chair of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, drafted the Restorative-Justice Strategy during 2009/10, which has been approved in principle by the JCPS Development Committee; and will be submitted to the JCPS directors-general for
ratification during 2011.
These documents will be consulted further with national government departments, especially relating to the implementation strategy and costing; and with civil society and non-governmental organisations concerned. Regular reports will be submitted on progress with implementation of the
strategy.
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Victim-Empowerment Programme (VEP)
This programme aims to improve services rendered
to victims of crime.
The National Prosecuting Authority has court-preparation officials on
contract who provide support to crime victims and
especially abused children, in preparing them for
court proceedings.
The department appointed intermediaries in regions to assist child witnesses in presenting evidence in court.
The Service Charter for Victims of Crime [PDF] is expected to go a long way towards assisting crime victims and contributing to interdepartmental and cluster coordination and cooperation.
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Transforming the
judiciary
The transformation of the judiciary remains one of government's key priorities. Through the efforts of the Judicial Services Commission, by March 2010, of the 208 permanent judges, 41% (86) were white, 39% (82) were African, 10% (20) were coloured and 10% (20) were Indian. Overall, 25% were female and 75% male.
Significant strides have been made in respect of the magistracy. Through the efforts of the Magistrates Commission, during the same period, of the 1 914 magistrates, 44% were white, 40% African, 7% coloured and 8% Indian. Overall, 36% were female and 64% male.
The following pieces of legislation were enacted to advance the transformation of the judiciary and enhance access to justice:
The JSC Amendment Act, 2008 is essential for enhancing judicial accountability. Some of the key principles introduced by the Act are the Code of Judicial Conduct and the requirement for financial disclosure by judicial officers.
The code will serve as prevailing ethical standards for judicial officers and will, among other things, set the standard of behaviour of judicial officers, including the requirement to perform judicial functions diligently, impartially and expeditiously.
The disclosure of financial interest will ensure the impartiality of judicial officers and eliminate corruption within the judiciary.
These far-reaching amendments are consistent with the trends globally to enhance the independence of the judiciary and increase public confidence in the judicial system.
The department redrafted the Constitution Amendment Bill and Supreme Courts Bill to accommodate the views of the judiciary, which emanated from the Judges Conference held in July 2009.
These Bills, which seek to consolidate the outstanding aspects relating to the transformation of the judicial system, provide, among other things, for the:
- Constitutional Court to be the apex court in South Africa
- the Chief Justice as the Head of the Judiciary to be assigned the responsibility to develop and monitor the implementation and observance of norms and standards for the effective functioning of all the courts
- rationalising of the high courts to ensure that there is equitable distribution of superior courts through the entire country
- enhancement of the capacity of the Office of the Chief Justice to be commensurate with the added responsibilities of that office.
The Bills were submitted for processing during the 2010/11 financial year.
A significant feature of the transformation of the judicial system, which will be addressed in a later Bill, relates to court administration.
A policy framework was drafted to seek ways of enhancing institutional independence commensurate with the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, which are the pillars of South Africa's constitutional democracy.
The transformation of the judiciary is closely linked with the transformation of the legal profession and scholarship.
The department continues to work in partnership with law schools in transforming the curriculum of the basic law degree to bring it in line with modern best practices. In addition to encouraging law schools to widen access to students from previously disadvantaged communities, these institutions will further be encouraged to forge linkages with leading law firms, prominent practitioners and relevant international organisations.
This will:
- ensure the relevance of the training they offer to the practical demands of the profession
- expose students, especially those from previously disadvantaged communities, to the profession and vice versa, to facilitate professional training prospects
- engage the legal profession in the evolution of a new legal system that expresses the constitutional and cultural aspirations of the new dispensation.
The department assists law graduates through its internship programme, which also provides research training, to give much-needed assistance to state legal officers, prosecutors, public defenders, the judiciary and the magistracy.
Transformation of the legal profession includes making judicial services accessible to the poor, the uneducated and the vulnerable.
This entails establishing a physical presence in rural areas and townships, offering affordable fees and providing speedy and empathetic services.
It also entails facilitating access to all aspects and levels of the profession by aspirant lawyers, especially those from previously marginalised backgrounds.
The provision of alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms is another key aspect of transforming justice services, thus making justice more accessible and more affordable.
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Sexual offences
The Criminal
Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters)
Amendment Act, 2007 (Act 32 of 2007) [PDF], provides a legal framework to support an integrated approach to the management of sexual offences, thereby aiming to reduce secondary trauma to victims of such violence.
In ensuring that the legal framework and the rights of victims are realised and operationalised to ensure effective service delivery, the Act prescribes in Section 62 the establishment of the Intersectoral Committee for the Management of Sexual Offence Matters, a monitoring framework overseen by the most senior government officials. This structure aims to eradicate the fragmented nature of service delivery by ensuring that the directors-general (DGs) of the relevant departments meet regularly to ensure coordination.
The functions of this committee are to develop the Draft National Policy Framework.
The first DG's Intersectoral Committee on the Management of Sexual Offences convened on 17 February 2009. An operational intersectoral committee was established to support the work of the Intersectoral Committee of DGs at an operational level.
These departments ensure that there are specialised services to support the victims of crime during court processes. These include intermediary services, court-preparation services, forensic services, victim-friendly rooms and counselling, and are aimed at eliminating secondary traumatisation of victims.
The department has developed the National Register for Sexual Offenders, which was deployed to 195 courts.
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Maintenance
The main objective of the Maintenance
Act, 1998 (Act 99 of 1998) [PDF], is to facilitate the securing of maintenance moneys from parents and/or other persons able to maintain maintenance beneficiaries, mainly children, who have a right to maintenance.
Parents and/or guardians must maintain children in the proportion in which they can afford. Therefore, both parents and/or sets of families need to take responsibility for the maintenance of the child or children concerned.
Project Isondlo was a specific project launched by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to improve services in maintenance courts, for the purpose of facilitating the legal enforcement of maintenance for children.
The numbers of new applications and orders made by maintenance courts increased by 50% during the 2009 financial year. This is because Section 28(2) of the Constitution provides that a child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child. This includes maintenance and a decent standard of living.
The Maintenance Act, 1998 and maintenance courts provide support towards obtaining maintenance moneys for children, through the civil enforcement of maintenance orders, which can be obtained by way of an emoluments attachment order; a warrant of execution; and/or a warrant of attachment of a debt owed by the maintenance defaulter.
The courts have also started enforcing the attachment of a maintenance defaulter's pension moneys to ensure that maintenance moneys are paid before the maintenance defaulter can disappear, leaving the children stranded.
The Justice Deposit Account System (JDAS) was deployed to all offices that
administer third-party funds, especially maintenance and bail moneys.
This is an automated system derived from the manual card system.
The JDAS provides better and faster service with shorter queues, and easy retrieval of information. Child-maintenance beneficiaries can make telephonic enquiries and get faster responses.
By the end of 2009, the JDAS was deployed to all 480 courts that serve as child-maintenance pay points.
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Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
developments
The EFT, launched in 2005, allows people to
access maintenance payments through their bank
accounts.
Some of the major banks assisted the department
with the opening of bank accounts and the
placement of automated teller machines at shops
in the local communities.
This system has reduced the regular absence
of women from their jobs to queue for their child
maintenance during working days as they can
access the money in their leisure time.
In 2009, there were 130 000 beneficiaries
receiving their maintenance through the EFT
system.
With the addition of the "payment anywhere" functionality of the Justice Deposit Account System (JDAS) , the EFT process was further enhanced whereby the JDAS transferred the beneficiaries' money directly into their bank accounts as soon as it was deposited. This reduced delays even further with beneficiaries receiving their money within 24 hours.
The pilot phase for this functionality was completed at four courts in the North West and by mid-2010 was ready to be deployed on a national basis.
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Domestic violence
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is committed to supporting and promoting the rights of victims of domestic violence, especially women, children and the elderly, through the courts and criminal-justice processes. It also ensures that victims of such crimes are assisted through the Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP), led by the Department of Social Development, which aims to improve their circumstances and quality of life.
Perpetrators of domestic violence should also be brought to court so that victims can be and feel more safe and secure.
During 2009/10, the department finalised a review of the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act 1998 (Act 116 of 1998) [PDF], in courts; and submitted the findings
to the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Development Committee, the VEP Task Team and the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities, which gave a mandate to the department to develop the JCPS Domestic
Violence Strategy to link with the broader VEP.
By mid-2010, the draft document was in its initial consultation phases and expected to be finalised in the 2011/12 financial year. To achieve this, the JCPS Cluster mandated the department to chair a task team to draft the strategy.
Further services on domestic-violence matters
Various government departments have put measures in place to facilitate the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, 1998. For instance, resources have been made available for the development of policies and programmes; outreach and education; training; the hiring of personnel; the establishment of family court centres; and the 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development launched and circulated guidelines in conjunction with and to support the judiciary in 2008, drafted by the Lower Court Management Committee. Recommended updates were discussed with the judiciary in 2010/11.
The Ndabezitha Project with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) trains traditional leaders and clerks of the court in domestic-violence matters in rural areas.
This includes the development of a safety tool and intersectoral statistical tool by the NPA and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, which was expected to be concluded during 2010/11.
The department engaged in research methodology called, The 10-Year Review of Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, 1998 aimed at taking stock of all initiatives and projects in courts and the criminal justice system (CJS) to address the reduction and prevention of domestic violence.
Electronic forms and systems were developed and approved to be piloted at two magistrates' courts after which it would be rolled out to all magistrates' courts' service
points to improve the handling of domestic-violence cases.
The department was in the process of developing a booklet called No More Violence, aimed at teaching role players at service points as well as victims how to alleviate domestic-violence matters and the impact of such crimes on their lives.
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Integrated case-flow management (CFM)
The Department of Justice and Constitutional
Development is engaged in the development of
an enhanced version of the CFM Framework for
implementation by involving all stakeholders.
In the process, participants from other partner
organisations will make meaningful contributions
on the issues and blockages affecting the proper
implementation of CFM in the court environment.
Efforts to eradicate such blockages will be
proposed by adopting workable solutions. These
include:
- continuous cooperation of stakeholders to implement and maintain CFM at all courts
- establishing judicial leadership and CFM buy-in processes in the lower and higher courts in the form of CFM forums
- facilitating and monitoring the creation of CFM governance structures to sustain productivity in the courts environment
- maintaining the CFM concept (guidelines, plans, governance, reporting and systems).
Systems that support CFM in the courts include the Integrated Case Management System (ICMS). This system spans all disciplines of cases administered in the justice environment.
The ICMS harvests from a number of core modules to perform basic functions such as information warehousing, case numbering and document scanning. The specific functionality for each court and office are then built around these foundations.
The following offices have already started to experience the benefits of the ICMS:
- masters offices (14 masters offices, 480 service points)
- National Register for Sex Offenders and Certificate Issuance System (195 offices)
- criminal lower courts (JDAS, including"payment anywhere", 487 offices)
- civil lower courts (480 offices)
- civil high courts (12 offices)
- small claims courts (430 offices).
By mid-2010, the following systems were in their pilot phase and soon to be deployed:
- Financial Disclosures System
- Digital Court Recording System
- Document Management System
- Transcription services
- Re Aga Boswa/Court Capacitation Programme
- Case-Reduction Backlog Project.
Between November 2006 and March 2010, the project received 20 151 cases and finalised 13 441 of them (66,7%).
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Court performance
The subbranch Court Performance of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is responsible for the development and monitoring of processes and systems; introducing case-flow management (CFM) that facilitates efficient and effective court and case management; developing and facilitating the implementation of a court-management policy framework; evaluating the quality of services and performance within the courts; and facilitating the development of uniform performance standards to enhance institutional performance.
As a service-delivery improvement programme, the CFM Project seeks to put in place institutional arrangements for integrated CFM in the court system. Given the broad and large sector of the justice system, this will be done incrementally over the years. The project therefore supports the institutional arrangements in the following ways:
- establishing judicial leadership regarding CFM – as the judiciary is in control of the court, it makes sense to facilitate extending such control to judicial preadjudication stages to achieve a holistic CFM judicial leadership
- re-engineering CFM support structures in the courts to respond adequately to the CFM regime.
The Court Performance Programme focuses on:
- increasing capacity at regions and courts to effect service delivery
- increasing and improving skills and competencies
- continued efforts to reduce case backlogs
- reviewing outdated court procedures/processes and the regulatory framework
- facilitating organisational efficiency
- facilitating efforts to secure skills required to operate the new systems and processes.
The Directorate: Court Efficiency's key priorities include:
- facilitating integrated CFM with stakeholders
- supporting the implementation of the Re Aga Boswa [PDF] and Court Capacitation projects
- facilitating the implementation of multilingualism in courts and the development of indigenous languages in line with constitutional imperatives
- facilitating the securing of standardised transcription services for courts across all regions, rendering case-management business intelligence support to information system management (ISM) in the development of information technology (IT) tools and systems, and supporting initiatives for the effective management of court records.
Source: South Africa Yearbook 2010/11
Editor: D Burger. Government Communication and Information System
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Last modified: 26 May 2011 15:07:12. |
