Johannesburg -
Gone are the days when imprisonment in South Africa was harsh and convict labour was used for the development of the country, in building roads, harbours and in mine work.
In conformity with the racist ideology that underpinned the system of government as a whole, prisoners were segregated and their conditions and treatment were two worlds apart.
And now more than two decades later, as South Africa celebrates 22 years of democracy, the country’s developmental correctional system is a cause to celebrate freedom
South Africa is now officially committed to a policy that aims to make prisons more humane places than they were under apartheid, with a view to rehabilitating offenders and reinserting them into society.
This is in conformity with the spirit of one of the world’s most liberal constitutions.
The purpose of the current correctional system is not punishment, but protection of the public, promotion of social responsibility and enhancing human development to prevent repeat offending or the return to crime.
The department insists that people who leave correctional centres must have appropriate attitudes, and competencies for them to successfully integrate back into society as law-abiding and productive citizens.
“We have produced a human rights based developmental correctional system, from the ashes of a prison system that was the bastion of apartheid oppression,” said the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Zach Modise.
He was speaking during a media tour of Boksburg Correctional Centre production workshops on Tuesday, which was organised to showcase progress made in transforming historically repressive prisons to human rights based centres for offender rehabilitation.
“From an oppressive system which essentially warehoused and brutalised prisoners, we are building a rehabilitation centred system that is accountable for its deeds and misdeeds to a number of oversight structures,” Modise said.
According to the Department of Correctional Services, the Boksburg production workshop is leading among ten offender workshops nationally with a R29 million annual turnover from top range furniture, steel works, upholstery, textile, bakery, powder coating, boiler making, agriculture and school furniture.
Modise said the department had invested R4.5m to recapitalise the Boksburg offender production workshop, which boosted the workshop’s turnover by 38 percent within one year, from R21m in 2014/15 to R29m in the 2015/16 financial year.
The Boksburg Correctional Centre also boasts of producing 627 800 loaves of bread annually at a low cost of R3.85 to supply a number of correctional centres thereby saving the fiscus R2.6m per annum, when considering the average bulk supply benchmark price of R8 for a loaf of bread.
The Boksburg Correctional Centre has also established an offender skills development unit which has produced 25 fully qualified artisans.
There are 130 offenders who are currently being trained on other skills development programmes, as part of a broader national shift to technical and vocational skills development in order to meet a country target of 30 000 artisans by 2030, as pronounced in the National Development Plan.
“Our aim is to ensure that we do not breed a community of criminals that will re-offend, but rather a group of ex-offenders, and parolees, that are ready to contribute in building safe environments, and a strong economy, for our beloved country,” he said.
The newly-qualified artisans on Tuesday received their artisan certificates in upholstery, wood machining, cabinet making and welding at a ceremony held at the Boksburg Correctional Services Centre.
Area commissioner Henny Makhubela said the programmes were accredited by sector education and training authorities (Setas).
While the project has successful training centres to enable former offenders to make a living for themselves outside the prison system, stigmatisation remains an issue.
The department has a Halfway House Pilot Project which offers an opportunity to offenders who meet all the requirements to be placed on parole but do not have fixed addresses.
Halfway houses reduce such offenders’ potential to re-offend because they are given a second chance to experience a home-like environment.
Young people between the ages of 18 and 25 constitute 69 percent of the offender population. There are 13 youth facilities nationally.
From April 2013, it is compulsory for every inmate to complete Adult Education and Training (AET) levels 1 to 4. More than 11 600 inmates have since participated in AET programmes in correctional centres across the country.
Sunday Independent