IT IS a Thursday and another day begins for the young offenders held at Boksburg Correctional Services, the only maximum security juvenile prison facility in Gauteng. The centre's 210 young offenders, aged between 16 and 25, are serving sentences ranging from 15 years to life.
Some of them are in a classroom, focused on the task at hand. A notice on the chalkboard reads, ‘June exam’, and a teacher walks between the rows of desks. This apprenticeship exam is part of the inmates’ rehabilitation process.
Gone are the days when convict labour was used to build infrastructure and in the mines.
Nowadays South Africa is committed to making prisons more humane places than they were under apartheid, with an emphasis on rehabilitating and reintegrating offenders into society.
In line with the spirit of the Constitution, correctional facilities focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Boksburg's prison has correctional and therapeutic programmes as well as social workers and educators to assist in the prisoners’ rehabilitation.
Education and training manager Jabulani Nkosi explains: “We try to ensure that young offenders are rehabilitated, and thereby reduce the chances of them becoming repeat or adult offenders.”
Communications representative Patrick Thobejane explains the many reasons why an inmate could be held in a single cell.
“One reason could be security concerns, maybe their life is in danger for some reason, such as a gang-related threat, or they may be a key state witness, in which case their safety must be guaranteed.
"Secondly, it’s for sexual orientation. We do have offenders who come into our facilities and declare their sexual orientation and, by law, we are expected to keep them isolated,” Thobejane adds.
In addition, inmates whose religion requires that they be isolated are also held in single cells, he says, as are those who have communicable diseases. “Offenders who have communicable diseases need to be isolated."
He adds: "Inmates who are scholars are also given isolation to make it easier for them to focus on their studies.
"This applies to sentenced young offenders. All offenders who attend classes, whether in Grade 10, matric or postmatric, who are pursuing further studies are also housed in the unit.”
Of the 210 juvenile offenders here, 81 are involved in adult education and training programmes.
Some of the centre’s young inmates have received little more than a primary school education, so they are encouraged to improve their literacy by enrolling in Adult Education Training (AET). It is compulsory for every inmate to complete AET levels 1 to 4.
“We are now planning to have a full-time school that that can offer tuition from Grades 10 to 12,” says Thobejane, adding that they hope to register the school before the end of the year.
Once the inmates graduate, they are enrolled in the workshop training centre where they are trained in various skills.
The most common crimes committed by these young offenders include robbery, rape and murder.
One of the inmates told The Sunday Independent that he would change his behaviour once he was released.
“Outside, I wasn’t at school, and since I’ve been in prison, I’ve been given an opportunity to learn, just like any other youth.
"When I'm released, I will change my behaviour and do the right thing. I want to be a TV technician,” he says.
Another inmate says he has a passion for physiology, and that he intends to pursue that once he is released.
“I failed a couple of times when I was outside, but since I’ve been in prison I’ve been focused on my studies,” he adds.
According to manager Hennie Faber, the Boksburg prison production workshop is the leading one among a total of 10 offender workshops countrywide.
It has a R28million annual turnover from furniture fabrication, steel work, upholstery, textiles, baked goods, powder coatings and boiler making to agriculture and school furniture fabrication.
The Boksburg Correctional Centre has also established an offender skills development unit which has produced 18 fully qualified artisans.
Its training target for the 2018/19 year is to qualify 250 inmates as artisans, and this action will be extended to other management areas around Boksburg.
About 132 offenders are registered with the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (MerSETA) and the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing (FP&M SETA).
“Our aim is to not create a community that will re-offend, but rather a group of ex-offenders and parolees who are ready to contribute to building a more productive, cohesive and safer society, through the economic skills development provided by us,” enthuses Faber.