DURBAN - WESTVILLE Prison lifers will have to wait until Tuesday for their parole pleas to be heard by the Durban High Court.
Nine applicants were expected to appear on Friday after challenging Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Michael Masutha and the area commissioner to fast track their registration as ordered by the court in May.
One lifer’s cousin, who declined to be named, accused the department of using delaying tactics.
“The family was hoping my cousin would be released soon to start a new chapter in his life,” he said.
Among the issues the applicants raised were the bad treatment meted out to them by officials, and being kept in isolation as punishment.
The Sunday Tribune was told that prisoner Erwin Christmas, the first applicant in a successful court case for parole brought against the department, has been placed in isolation.
DCS spokesperson Logan Maistry said although there was a backlog, the unbecoming behaviour in correctional centres could never be allowed.
“The department will act with vigour to ensure there is no dereliction from the core mandate of enhancing public safety through effective and humane incarceration of inmates as well as their rehabilitation and social reintegration,” said Maistry.
The Durban High Court ruled in May that the applications of the group at Medium B Westville Correctional
Centre must be processed “with immediate effect” and that they be considered even if reports from social workers and psychologists had
not been completed.
Judge Nompumelelo Radebe has ordered Masutha to consider nine of the 11 inmates for parole and stop “postponing or delaying” the process.
The Correctional Supervision and Parole Board and the case management committee at Westville Prison’s Medium B section were ordered to forward the inmates’ profile reports to the minister.
Within four months of receiving them, Masutha will have to inform them of whether they have been successful.
The judge reserved her reasons but during proceedings it emerged that some of the inmates were as much as five years overdue to be considered.
The prisoners want Masutha to comply with court orders directing all correctional centres to update lifers’ minimum sentence to reflect a 2005 remission of sentence.
However, Masutha said that although the department was responsible for executing warrants issued by the courts, the eventual release and reintegration of offenders into society could only be successful if society was also involved in facilitating offenders back into communities.
“This can only be achieved if family, friends, and the community alike can provide support to offenders while in the correctional centre and also when they are in the community,” Masutha said.