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The Minister of Correctional Services, Mr Ben M Skosana, today presented the department's draft White Paper to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services. This draft White Paper arises out of a need for a long-term strategic policy and operational framework that recognises corrections as a societal responsibility and the need for the Department of Correctional Services to gear all its activities to serve a rehabilitation mission that ensures, through delivery of appropriate programmes, without compromising security, that the people who leave prisons or correctional centres have appropriate attitudes and competencies enabling them to successfully integrate back to society as law abiding and productive citizens.

This new direction is setting new major challenges to both the broader society and the Department of Correctional Services.

To the broader society the main challenge is restoration of cohesion at both the family and community levels of society. The draft White Paper positions the family as the primary level and community institutions as the secondary level at which correction must necessarily take place. The dysfunctionality at these levels has to be addressed if the rate of new convictions is to decrease. The Department of Correctional Services, positioning itself as a tertiary level of intervention, is looking forward to encouraging these basic societal institutions to recognise their strategic roles in nation building in general and in correction in particular.

The main challenge of the Department of Correctional Services is to translate the vision of the draft White Paper into operational activities. The department is gearing itself to introduce financial programmes in the 2004/5 financial year that will signal the commitment of the department to implement the draft White Paper. The new financial programmes of the Department include:

* Correction: which aims to address the offending behaviour of sentenced persons
* Security: which aims at addressing the safety of inmates, officials and members of the public
* Facilities: the challenge is to ensure that the Department has a long-term facilities strategy that enables the effective conduct of rehabilitation programmes and safe custody in humane conditions
* Care: intended to address the well-being needs of inmates including access to social and psychological services
* Development: aims to provide for skills development and utilisation in line with departmental and national human resource needs
* After Care: intended to ensure successful re-integration through appropriate interventions directed at both the inmate and relevant societal institutions.

The new financial programmes will require the department to deliver focused quality services to the sentenced person, effectively manage the correctional official, and drastically improve the management of relations with accredited external stakeholders and oversight authorities.

The Department of Correctional Services recognises the enormous challenge it has to change the profile of the correctional official from that of a prison warder perceived to be prone to corrupt influences to a role model and a rehabilitator. This change is however no longer optional as correctional officials are best placed to influence offenders negatively or positively.

The department is looking forward to a time when every convicted prisoner will be afforded an opportunity to be corrected. When such a time comes, the department hopes that society will not be found wanting through unwillingness to reintegrate released rehabilitated citizens.

Correction is not a responsibility of the Department of Correctional Services alone - it is a shared responsibility with society. The role of societal institutions must be visible at all levels where correction is taking place, including departmental correctional centres.

The Department of Correctional Services as an arm of the state is looking forward to seeing to this vision of correction contributing to nation building and being the main strategic objective of the Department in the next decade.

Contact person:
Tšoeu Ntsane, 082 905 9749
Russel Mamabolo, 082 808 7524

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services, 26 November 2003

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