Pretoria -
As part of an attempt to reduce the number of prison inmates, Correctional Services Minister Sbu Ndebele has launched the department’s new electronic monitoring system, a means of locating and tracking offenders out on parole.
This system, which sees parolees fitted with a bracelet and tracking devices, will be used to monitor and locate them after they have been released from prison.
Speaking at Correctional Services’ head office on Monday, Ndebele said his department is responsible for more than 150 000 inmates, each costing the taxpayer more than R9 800 a month.
“Our country has 51.8 million citizens, and our rate of imprisonment is the highest in Africa,” Ndebele said.
With the electronic monitoring system, the monthly cost per offender will be reduced to just over R3 300 a month and fewer offenders will be behind bars.
“Against a background of stubbornly high prison populations and rapidly developing technology, governments are now reaching a critical point in the use of electronic monitoring as a means of reducing costs and improving the effectiveness of corrections,” Ndebele said.
The department will roll out the first 500 tags and tracking systems, to the value of R18 million, before the end of this financial year.
Every year thereafter, more monitoring systems will be issued to parolees.
Correctional Services officials yesterday demonstrated the monitoring equipment by fitting a parolee from Mamelodi with an ankle tag and a tracker.
Once the tag is activated, control room staff can watch the parolee’s movements live on a Google Earth-like programme.
The system is personalised for each offender, specifying where they are allowed to go and at what time.
If they violate their parole conditions, by for example going somewhere they are not allowed to, the system sends out an alert to the control room.
Tampering with the device and not charging its battery are also considered violations.
The offender is called by use of the tracking device and has to provide reasons for the violation.
If the offender cannot be reached, Correctional Services officials in the area are called in to investigate.
The control room is manned by Correctional Services officials and service provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
Ndebele said that even a prison warder can locate a certain prisoner at any given time, making the system more effective and beneficial in tracking parolees.
“You cannot find a prisoner in Joburg prison this easily,” he said.
In cases of domestic violence, victims are also given a device which will alert them if the offender is within a certain radius of them or their home.
“Restriction and surveillance can also be used to reduce the likelihood of the individual re-offending, particularly against the original victim,” Ndebele said.
The system can be used to prove or disprove an offender’s involvement in a crime.
This is done by checking their location at the time the crime was committed.
Another device, which the department has yet to test, is a breathalyser system.
This system subjects the offender to random alcohol tests as part of their parole conditions.
The devices can also be issued with a solar panel for offenders who do not have electricity.
Ndebele labelled overcrowding as the most pressing issue in prisons globally.
Since 2008, the department has brought down its overcrowding rate from 37.91 percent to 28.48 percent this year.
“We are publicly demonstrating the electronic monitoring system as an alternative to traditional incarceration for eligible offenders and an innovative way to punish criminals,” Ndebele said.
An offender’s tag and tracking device are only removed if their parole has been revoked, if their sentence expires or if they abscond and commit a new crime, whereby they will be arrested.
Correctional Services Minister Sbu Ndebele tries out the system:
In the control room in WF Nkomo Street, Ndebele used the tracking system to locate parolees across the country.
The system shows the parolee’s location and indicates whether the offender is violating any of his parole conditions.
Ndebele called two parolees, one in the Northern Cape who seemed to violate his conditions, and another in Porterville in the Western Cape.
The man in the Northern Cape appeared to be at school and was in fact not breaching his conditions.
The parolee in the Western Cape turned out to be convicted Cape Town gang leader Rashied Staggie.
Ndebele asked him where he was and what he was doing. He was not in violation of his parole conditions and indicated he was at work.
There are 150 parolees with tags in as part of an 18-month trial run.
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