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Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media

My Department will endeavour to contribute to some of the issues which the President raised in his State of the Nation address on Friday last week. It should also be noted that we are pursuing other initiatives, which may not have been directly alluded to by the President in his speech.

1. Poverty alleviation

It is our commitment to contribute to poverty alleviation and, as the President said, to achieve our national goal to build a caring and people-centred society.

The Department will deploy prisoner-generated goods and services, as well as prison labour for poverty, disaster relief and rural development. The intention is to support community development projects in which the community will require such assistance. In order to implement this project, the Department will work together with non-governmental and community-based organisations involved in poverty alleviation for the distribution of these goods and services. We trust that this will be a small but significant contribution towards the NEPAD process.

We are beginning to work on the analysis report as well as the distribution schedule for these services which we believe will be ready towards the middle of this year.

2. HIV/AIDS

The fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic takes a different turn when it comes to the prison environment because of its peculiar circumstances. When prisoners are incarcerated they bring enormous needs, which are to be met and HIV infection is one of the pressures they face in an environment characterised by overcrowding, spread of diseases, poor living conditions and abuse by fellow prisoners. HIV/AIDS has created an increasing demand for programmes: medical, educational, in-patient facilities, aftercare services, and support services for a Department whose core business is safe custody and rehabilitation. The provision of health care is therefore an additional responsibility in line with the prescripts.

To contain this situation, the Department will this year unveil a Workplace HIV/AIDS Policy. The draft policy underwent extensive consultation within and outside the Department and will soon be submitted to the Committee of Core Ministers responsible.

The increase in numbers should also been seen in the context of new prisoners coming to our facilities.

The rendering of effective HIV/AIDS services in prisons can only be realised with an effective and efficient primary health care, access to medical and pharmaceutical services. The Department is experiencing an exodus of nurses who are attracted to other countries which provide better remuneration. This leads to compromise in the effective rendering of health care services in prisons.

In addition to assisting in the evolution of the new HIV/AIDS policy, the Department of Health has seconded a person living with HIV on a consultancy basis to Correctional Services to assist in the finalisation of the policy and programmes.

3. Fighting corruption

It will be recalled that following my appeal in August 2001, the President appointed Judge Thabani Jali as the Chairperson and sole member of the Commission of Inquiry into allegations of corruption, maladministration, violence or intimidation in the Department of Correctional Services.

I am happy to inform you that the Jali Commission has begun its work and has started to gather evidence relating to the areas which fall within its mandate. It is expected to complete its work within twelve months and an amount of R5-8million is estimated to be spent on the Commission during its period of investigation.

It is my hope and belief that the Commission will go a long way in dealing with the perceptions and realities of corruption, maladministration, violence or intimidation in our Department. We would like to appeal to members of the Department, civil society and the public in general to give the Commission maximum support and co-operation.

4. Management of resources

The question of poor management will receive immediate attention. Managers are there to ensure that officials do their work according to set standards, regulations and guidelines. Very few escapes would happen if our members stuck to their textbook.

The retraining of our members for purposes of strengthening their administrative capacity, as well as their re-orientation in the direction in which the Department is going are some of our goals in this regard. The President reiterated in his address our aim of improving professional competence at all levels of Government.

Our aim is to create a culture of good governance to ensure cost-effective utilisation of resources, as well as to establish a management function that is effectual.

We will ensure the promotion of the Equality Act and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act. We shall also implement a service delivery improvement programme.

5. Revitalisation of the Parole System

You will recall that towards the end of 2001 Parliament approved amendments to the Correctional Services Act to address our concerns about the lack of community involvement in our parole system.

According to the amendment, the composition of the new Parole Boards includes two permanent members from the community, members from the Departments of Correctional Services, Justice and Constitutional Development as well as the South African Police Service. A member of the community will chair them.

The victim will also participate or be represented at the parole hearings to allow, for the first time, for the direct participation of victims in the justice system instead of them being called upon only as prosecution witnesses.

We hope that the transformation of the new Parole Boards will earn everyone's respect and credibility, and avoid incidents such as the recent one in which the Chairperson of the Westville Prison Parole Board is reported to have said that child abuse was not a serious crime. The person in question has since been removed from the position as chairperson and will not be allowed to serve in any Parole Board in any capacity.

6. Restorative justice

The victim friendly parole system is in line with the Restorative Justice Approach, which we launched last November. It is a just process that brings together the victim, the offender, the families and the community into the mediation process, for purposes of repairing the harm created by crime. It is also aimed at creating an environment for reparation and forgiveness, thereby bringing along healing in the community

We plan to embark on the following strategies, among others, to implement this approach:

* Develop a legislative framework and policy to inform and guide Restorative Justice practices;
* Raise awareness on the Restorative Justice approach amongst Correctional Services personnel, other Government Departments and the broader community;
* Conduct workshops to educate and gain support within the Department; and
* Establish a structure to co-ordinate and manage Restorative Justice.

7. Overcrowding

We shall redouble our efforts to reduce overcrowding in our prisons, which continues to be a thorn in the side of our Department.

Despite our exercise in September 2000 to release awaiting trial prisoners who could not afford bail of up to R1000 and the early placement on parole of certain categories of prisoners, our prison population stood at 176 588 as at 24 January 2002, consisting of 55 576 unsentenced and 121 012 sentenced. However, the total accommodation capacity of our prisons remains at 105 106 prisoners, meaning that we are overpopulated by 71 482 prisoners or 68%.

Our determination to reduce overcrowding was recently demonstrated with the opening of new private prisons at Bloemfontein and Louis Trichardt under our programme of using private financing and management for new prison infrastructure development in terms of the Asset Procurement and Operating Partnerships System (APOPS).

8. Rehabilitation

The Department of Correctional Services has decided to put prisoner rehabilitation at the centre of its activities and has put strategies in place to strike a balance between safe custody and rehabilitation. Close interaction with the Departments of Health, Social Development and Labour and members of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Safety Cluster is being undertaken in this exercise.

This year the Department will unveil a new comprehensive model of intervention to address offending behaviour. The model lays emphasis on professional assessment, development of profiles, need-based training, structured intervention and evaluation of programmes rendered.

8.1 Unit Management

Alongside this new paradigm is the Unit Management approach - the breaking up of prisoners into small manageable units and the re-designing of prison structures such that cells conform to that approach. New prisons that are constructed are designed along the lines of unit management. Experience in many countries has proved that it is only when prisoners are organised in small units that rehabilitation programmes can be efficiently carried out. The pilot implementation of unit management in 27 prisons countrywide has been very successful and plans are underway now to roll it out in phases to all prisons.

8.2 Exhibitions and creative art in prisons

Prisoners are encouraged to engage in creative arts as part of their rehabilitation. Last year our prisons in Durban and East London held exhibitions to demonstrate the creative artistic talents of prisoners. Items on show included woodcraft, leatherwork, handicrafts, pottery, agricultural products, and various items portraying paintings. A similar collection of artistic work by prisoners in North West prisons was on display in Potchefstroom on 7 November 2001.

9. Escapes from prison

The issue of escapes from our prisons continues to be one of the major challenges facing us. We shall however continue to exercise zero tolerance to escapes, as we believe that there are several factors that we have to address.

Our preliminary report on recent escapes exposed serious deviations from policy and procedures. These manifest themselves in gross negligence bordering on collaborating with escapees and weak or poor management.

As much as we appreciate the trying conditions under which our people work, that cannot justify poor performance, negligence and aiding escapes. Our Government and our people have mandated us to ensure safe and humane detention of prisoners and their rehabilitation. Prison escapes fly in the face of that mandate.

There was an 18% downward trend in the number of prison escapes during 2001 compared to 16% in 2000. Even though this trend is appreciated, we intend to eliminate this scourge throughout our correctional system.

10. International assistance

Following an appeal by the President for assistance to the people of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo who were devastated by a volcano recently, the Department has decided to mobilise the old green prison uniform from various prisons for distribution to the people of Goma. Individual members of staff have gone all out to gather foodstuffs, which will be handed over, together with the uniforms, to the Department of Foreign Affairs for distribution in Goma. It will be recalled that the Department is now using a bright orange uniform for prisoners, hence the availability of the old uniform for distribution to our fellow Africans.

11. The Kokstad Prison situation

There has recently been a flurry of activity in the media with regard to the Kokstad Maximum Security Prison. In addressing this matter a meeting was held in Cape Town on Thursday last week attended by Members of Parliament, representatives of the Departments of Public Works, Provincial and Local Government and Correctional Services.

The meeting mandated the Department of Provincial and Local Government to set up a task team to look into the whole matter and report back to the meeting within a fortnight.

We are proceeding with our plans to get the prison fully operational and the phasing in of maximum-security prisoners will start this month.

The Maximum Security Prison in Kokstad will be fully operational by the end of this year with no negative impact on the Kokstad community, but we believe that, on the contrary, it will contribute tremendously to their development efforts.

I thank you for your attention.

Issue by Ministry of Correctional Services

11 February 2002