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Programme Director
The Inspecting Judge, Justice J J Fagan
MEC Community Safety, Mr Leonard Ramatlakane
Members of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services
SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Mr Lennit Marx
Provincial Commissioner of the Western Cape, Mr Gxilishe
Deputy Director-General Health, Dr Beth Engelbrecht
Regional Director of Justice, Mr Mohammed
Representative of the South African Medical Association, Dr S Mazaza
Management and Staff of Correctional Services
Distinguished Guests
Families and friends of inmates
Our inmates
Ladies and Gentlemen

"Crime is an issue that has a whirlpool of consuming emotions associated with it: rage, terror, grief, violation, and a sense of meaninglessness. Crime is both the cause of these emotions in the survivors and the result of these emotions in the perpetrators.

No matter which side of the gun you look at, there is a human being living his life, feeling his feelings, searching for meaning and longing to be free.

Although the actions of the perpetrators enrage and scare me, I have always had a need to know more about these people who work outside of the law and outside of society. I have needed to know the set of choices that led them to where they stand holding a gun. Not to excuse them, but to seek to understand.

Who are they? What are their lives like? Do they feel scared? Do they have meaningful moments with their victims? Do they feel regret, guilt, or pain? What is it like to make a living by taking? How do they learn the skills they need to do this work?".

[Cathy Park - Inside/Outside]

These are the words written by a person motivated and inspired to learn more about the criminal mind and are an expression of the inner soul's desire to come to terms with the facts surrounding the conscious commission of crime and the deliberate transgression of societal norms and values. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to everyone present here today as we are gathered to fulfil the Government's commitment to the improvement of service delivery by direct interaction with the people during this Imbizo Focus Week.

This is an opportunity for the citizens to raise their views to Government on what it is doing to implement its programme of action and for Public Representatives supported by Public Servants to provide information which is essential for holding Government accountable.

This is an occasion which allows the people to speak out and the Government to listen to how best the community can participate in the implementation of those programmes which will contribute to bringing about a better life for all.

We at Correctional Services, have chosen to speak directly to inmates and their families because we are aware of the crucial role which the community has to play in the regeneration of the decaying moral fibre of our society.

Government mandated us, as a department to put more emphasis on the rehabilitation of inmates so that we can together contribute towards changing their offending behaviour within a safe environment for the community, offenders and our personnel.

Following the incidents which were captured on video and broadcast on national television on Grootvlei Prison, we spent eleven weeks talking to management and staff of the nine provinces including Head Office on issues relating to the elimination of corruption in the Department.

Having completed this campaign I then decided that I would be directly addressing inmates in some of the big prisons in the country. It will be recalled that in August 2000, we held a symposium in Johannesburg with community organisations, NGOs, religious and spiritual bodies, and other government departments, to, among others, establish consensus that "Correctional Service is a Collective Social Responsibility" as well as to create a firm foundation for coherent and cohesive role-playing by all sectors of society.

I wish to re-state what I said at the official opening that "We must seek to achieve national consensus on the human development of all prisoners and their integration into the community as productive and law-abiding citizens.

The Department needs the active support of all stakeholders in its fight to change attitudes in the stigmatisation process of ex-prisoners. The public must be properly educated about prison and the correction process in order to eradicate the widely held perception that prisoners are society's outcasts, and therefore do not deserve a second chance."

This is precisely why the presence of the families of inmates, NGOs and other role-players here today assumes an added significance as we believe that Correctional Service must be a "Collective Social Responsibility". The presence of the media is also appreciated in that we believe they will assist us in bringing about a greater understanding of what we as a Department are doing.

We have gone a long way towards promoting partnerships with the community as we are aware that the poverty levels in the majority of our previously disadvantaged communities are extremely high. We therefore embarked on poverty alleviation programmes in which prisoners work together with the community to grow food for consumption by the poor in the community, and as part of our contribution to the human and social development of our people.

Our poverty alleviation programmes officially took off in April this year when the Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma, and myself launched a project at Zonderwater prison where the inmates grow food for the poor and needy. In Thohoyandou, Limpopo Province the community collected funds for purchasing building materials and inmates built additional classrooms, renovated the Mutshalingana Primary School and refurbished broken old desks. In addition to this a piece of land was allocated by the Department for growing agricultural produce in partnership with the Community.

Various similar projects have been embarked upon in all Provinces, however, our major concern is to ensure that our poverty alleviation projects are sustainable and not based on periodic handouts.

Within the Poverty Alleviation Programme, we aim to bring the community closer to our programmes of rehabilitation and develop a role for the Department in both urban renewal and rural development. These initiatives are intended to emancipate the people of this country from the clutches of hunger, poverty and underdevelopment which are concomitant factors to crime.

The objective of employing the services of prison labour is also to give an opportunity to prisoners to directly or indirectly contribute to the welfare of society and contribute to the welfare of those whom they have wronged or offended. It is also our objective to address negative perceptions that prisoners are just consumers of the nation's resources and that nothing good can ever come out of the prison system.

We view rehabilitation as the provision of a safe and appropriate environment conducive to influencing offenders to learn and adopt positive and appropriate value systems, creating a desire in them to lead productive and law-abiding lives when they are released to the community. We believe that as much as inmates are incarcerated in our prisons, they have the potential and capacity to be good citizens. Our emphasis on community participation in our correctional system has also been emphasised by preparations which are under way for the implementation of decision-making parole boards with two members representing the community.

The participation of the community will ensure that we are together in our efforts to cleanse ourselves of previous negative attitudes towards you as offenders and have an insight into individual inmate behaviour and a better understanding of what goes on during the whole process. Parole will no longer be an easy exercise as the views of the community and the victim will be represented before a decision is taken to grant parole to an inmate.

The participation of the community in our rehabilitation programmes is crucial if their success is to be guaranteed. We need to get rid of the negative public perceptions about people who have offended society and try to build bridges and embrace the fact that imprisonment is by itself punishment. It is therefore necessary to understand that offenders need acceptance and support upon their release for their successful re-integration into the community.

Our rehabilitation efforts will have been in vain if they continue to be ostracised and rejected by society because of their past.

Nobody was born a criminal, and therefore inmates have to be encouraged to change their offending behaviour. Apart from assisting us to rehabilitate offenders we need to strengthen existing mechanisms within society to emphasise prevention rather than cure.

We need to create an atmosphere which is conducive to the promotion of Restorative Justice which is a process aimed at bringing you as the offender, the victim, families and the community together in looking for ways to make things right again after an offence has been committed.

Members of the community are also challenged to recognise the human dignity of both the victim and the offender and to act as a resource for their reconciliation with the aim of re-building trust and strengthening relationships and bonds in the community.

We are appealing to the community to become a primary resource in responding to crime in a restorative framework, because building community support includes gaining community approval and confidence in our new approaches within the criminal justice system.

Our skills development programmes play a pivotal role in our rehabilitation efforts and we envisage that by the end of the current financial year training centres and workshops will be available in fifteen Management Areas to provide inmates with skills in leatherworks, fittings and machinery, panel beating and spray painting, carpentry, textiles, maintenance, bricklaying and metal works.

In fact some of the products of our operational workshops are found in many Government and other public offices and are also being displayed in the exhibition that has been laid out for you today.

We, however, wish to appeal to members of the community and the private sector to absorb inmates who have acquired skills and who are now free to exercise them outside the precincts of prison. All training is accredited with external service providers who issue the inmates with certificates which should be universally recognised. Therefore there is no reason to discriminate against the inmates just because they have been to prison. Failure to absorb them within the labour market will do nothing to address their offending behaviour, therefore they will find themselves back in prison.

Besides skills development, the Department is engaged in education and training programmes which are meant to raise the prisoners' literacy rate and equip them for successful integration into society.

Our Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) provides a basis from which offenders can further their education in other areas where literacy is essential such as entry into a variety of training opportunities.

In order to create an atmosphere conducive to rehabilitation we have adopted the Unit Management approach which has been seen to be effective where it has been implemented as a pilot project in 27 prisons countrywide.

Although Unit Management has over the years demonstrated its effectiveness as a strategy to reduce prison violence and control gang activity while contributing to achieving prisoner rehabilitation. We would count on your commitment as inmates because incidents and reports indicate that you are engaged in these activities.

Overcrowding remains one of the greatest challenges which we continue to face and it continues to impact negatively on our rehabilitation efforts.

We acknowledge that overcrowding violates your human rights as offenders and results in the over-extension of our staff, cramped poor and unhealthy living conditions for offenders, increased tension, aggression and sexual violence in prison; conditions which are not conducive to rehabilitation.

However, this should be no justification for acts of violence, corruption and bad behaviour from the part of both the staff and inmates.

To demonstrate the gravity of overcrowding in our prisons, I wish to inform you that as at 31 August 2002 we had a total of 179 402 prisoners countrywide. Of these 127 735 were sentenced prisoners while 51 667 were unsentenced prisoners, all living in accommodation meant for 110 941 prisoners. This means that we are overcrowded by 68 461 or 61.7%.

These figures exclude the 28 567 prisoners on parole supervision cases and 19 331 cases on correctional supervision. This would bring the total number of prisoners in our care to 227 300.

As regards Pollsmoor Management Area alone, there are 7 058 inmates living in a facility meant to accommodate 4 336, meaning that the facility is overcrowded by 2722 or 62.7%. Parolees and Correctional Supervision cases total 2 859.

The total number of juveniles under the age of 21 years of age in our prisons nationally is 28 091 and 1996 of them are in Pollsmoor. We have 3 593 female prisoners in our custody and 272 of them are in Pollsmoor, and of these 11 are in custody with their babies.

You can obviously tell that these figures are much too high compared to the facilities and resources which we have at our disposal.

As indicated overcrowding puts great pressure on our ability to provide health services and a variety of other services we intend providing such as education and training, psychological and social work services. Government and the Department in particular is committed in devising strategies to alleviate overcrowding in prisons. We also welcome the initiatives spearheaded by Judge Fagan and other partners within the Criminal Justice System such as the Courts, SAPS and Department of Social Development.

It is significant that we also join the nation as we commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Partnership Against Aids which was launched by President Mbeki in 1998. I believe it is necessary for me to briefly inform you of some of the programmes we have embarked upon to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in prisons:

* Collaboration and partnership has been established with the Departments being represented on the South African National Aids Council (SANAC), the Inter Departmental Committee on HIV/AIDS and on the South African Civil Military Alliance.
* Partnerships have been established with Non Governmental Organisations, Community-based Organisations and the private sector to provide assistance in treatment, training, counselling, care and support to the affected and infected.
* Capacity building with regard to HIV/AIDS is being provided in terms of the provision of financial and human resources. All categories of officials are trained on HIV/AIDS issues and offenders trained in peer group teaching and life skills.
* Promotion of access to voluntary counselling and testing services as part of prevention.
* Employment of persons living with HIV/AIDS
* Availability of condoms

Given the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa, intervention efforts should be based on facts and should be responsive to the needs and lifestyles of those at a higher risk of infection. The Department of Correctional Services will continue to rely to a greater extent on the already established partnerships in the fight against HIV/AIDS and in particular on the expert advice of the Department of Health.

I believe that it would be appropriate that we light candles at this occasion in remembrance of those who are both infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in all our prisons and in the whole country.

The relationships between members of the Department and prisoners has been a matter of concern since it is our obligation to exhibit behaviour which projects the personal image of members as well as that of the Department in a positive light. We have to adopt the right attitude if we are to succeed in the rehabilitation of our inmates.

It will not help to be abusive in any way to the inmates if we are to be able to influence the positive behaviour of inmates, likewise it is expected of you as inmates not to be abusive to the officials, to respect authority and observe rules and regulations in your conduct.

We have a Code of conduct which aims to provide guidelines for members as to what is expected of them from an ethical point of view both in their individual conduct and their relationship to others.

Our Code of Conduct should provide all members of the Department with the necessary moral high ground to enable them to assist the prisoners to restore their moral fibre.

The Moral Regeneration Movement launched by the Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma late last year should provide a platform for all of us to re-examine ourselves and look afresh at our attitudes and jump onto the bandwagon of Moral Regeneration.

In his remarks, the Deputy President said: "The lack of respect for the sanctity of human life, for the next person, private property, disregard for the law of the land, lack of parental control over children, and the general blurring of the lines between right and wrong are continuing to plague our communities.... Indeed, the time has come to move forward together. Moral regeneration is not something which can be left to either Government or to the religious community alone".

Those powerful words should move us into action to take responsibility for each other. All of us: members, the community and offenders have a responsibility to carry the torch of Moral Regeneration forward.

As Correctional Services, we have a firm belief that you as offenders are responsible for your own behaviour and that you have the potential to change and live like all law-abiding citizens.

We also believe that the majority of offenders can be dealt with effectively in the community through diversion programmes and support from families and friends. The responsibility for promoting moral regeneration lies with all of us.

The information that I have received that nine female inmates in Pollsmoor have launched a newsletter is a source of great encouragement, as they have voluntarily taken the initiative to communicate their views even from behind bars. I hope that such healthy endeavours will be emulated by other inmates elsewhere in order to create a climate of creativity, reading, learning and sharing of constructive ideas.

Chapter 2 Section 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa which is the Bill of Rights guarantees certain rights to arrested, detained and accused persons. I believe that they in turn have the moral obligation to respect the rights of others including fellow inmates.

There is no reason for some prisoners to assume the right to assault, sodomise or rape others, nor is there any justification for the existence of prison gangs. Drug trafficking and substance abuse have no place in our prisons as they can only aggravate the health conditions in our prisons and further destroy the intellectual and physical demeanour of individuals.

You as offenders have the real possibility of influencing the conditions of your imprisonment as well as the duration of your imprisonment.

A demonstration by offenders that they are sufficiently mature to live harmoniously with one another would be a strong enough motivation for them to receive some commendation or other. This is a challenge we are laying down before you today: to treat one another in a principled way - with respect, care, dignity, fairness and love. To have the maturity and courage to correct those who do wrong things and to have the humility to accept when your fellow inmates are correcting you. To nurture, protect and guide the weak and young amongst yourselves. There must be no outcast, no enemy and no fair prey anymore amongst yourselves.

If you can succeed to treat one another in an unselfish manner here in prison where there are so many difficult characters, it is reasonable to expect that on your release you would have no problem relating to different types of people in the community.

It is my expectation that Area Managers and Heads of Prisons would meaningfully revive and practice, without bias, the existing mechanisms of rewarding individuals and groups of prisoners that behave well. There must be tangible benefits for people who do not sodomise fellow prisoners, who do not beat up fellow prisoners, who do not generally ill-treat one another.

I hope that all of you will begin to come up with ideas in your own cells on how you can live in peace as brothers and sisters, able to correct one another without becoming violent factions.

Clearly, the way some of you are behaving in your cells shows not only that you are not ready to leave prison, but that you do not know how to make everyone, including yourselves happy in the circumstances you live under.

The security of inmates and the security of our Correctional Officials are matters that this Department is committed to improve on a continuous basis. Anyone whose actions undermine the security of another inmate or undermine the security of a Correctional Official must know that he is setting himself directly against everything this Department stands for. This is so because we cannot effectively deliver correctional, development and human care services within a fearful and unruly atmosphere.

We have recognised as a Department that our own Correctional Officials have a lot that they must correct in themselves. We are therefore openly saying to you that we are currently embarking on an ambitious gearing or preparation of the Department to deliver effective correctional services to you. But we have realised that we must correct our own officials as well.

We acknowledge that people who have a challenge to change and behave in a principled way are not only you as offenders, but also our officials.

We do not want our officials to abuse you in any way. We do not want our officials to discriminate in the treatment of any inmate. That is why this Department is introducing a culture of corrections that must be true to both the Correctional Official and the Person Under Correction.

The ball is therefore in your court. The biggest challenge is with those who are most influential in prison. The question is - are you using your influence to build others or to destroy them? Destruction is associated with evil and building is associated with good. We urge you to side with good. This you can do by making sure that what you say and do always builds others. Always ask yourself or your friend: is what you are saying or doing building others or destroying them? Therefore I urge you to build, and build and build with your tongue and your actions. Involve yourselves more, voluntarily and willingly in all programmes that are meant to improve your lot.

In conclusion, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude and to commend the staff of this Department for their hard work under very difficult circumstances.

This Department must count itself very fortunate to have committed men and women who would not easily be swayed from their calling. We appeal to others who have strayed to discard their ways, to respect and honour their profession.

Lastly, the presence of the families, friends, NGOs, magistrates, judges, police officers, here today is deeply appreciated and is regarded as a sign of the willingness of the community to work hand in hand with us to ensure that in the movement towards a crime free society we have partners on whom we can rely.

Let me leave you with the words of Cathy Park from her book called Inside Outside - A journey of the spirit through the gates of a prison when she said:

"In my journey I have over and over again caught myself searching outside in the world for this freedom. Over and over again I have been disappointed. Over and over again I have been gently (and sometimes loudly) reminded that the route to take on my quest is within. We need to go inside to become more conscious and, thereby, free. If we choose to reject this inner journey, our outer reality will eventually require us to face ourselves and to venture into the inner territories. Whether it is imprisonment, retrenchment, illness, an unhappy relationship, dissatisfaction with our working life, hijacking or a death, sooner or later we are called to look inside to find the answers we seek".

God bless Correctional Services, God bless South Africa.

I thank you

Source: Department of Correctional Services (http://www.dcs.gov.za)