Correctional Services Acting National Commissioner Nontsikelelo Jolingana says churches must help in reducing high offender recidivism (offending) rates estimated at between 67 percent and 94 percent in South Africa.
Addressing a gathering of about 2800 congregants that included correctional officials and offenders at the Christ Revival Church in Pretoria today, 27 February 2011, Commissioner Jolingana said with such high recidivism rates the safety of the people of South Africa are far from the levels envisaged in the government strategic goal.
Acting Commissioner Jolingana was invited to the official launch of a Prison Ministry by the Christ Revival Church (CRC) in Pretoria. The CRC Church has installed a big screen, a video projector and sound system that is connected through Virtual Private Network to their Pretoria church for live transmission of service on Sundays. The prison ministry deal reached includes counselling sessions, deployment of a dedicated pastor to minister and run bible studies among offenders at the Pretoria Correctional Centre.
Acting Commissioner Jolingana said the target set by the government “is a toll order and a daunting challenge, which can never be achieved by an institution or a government that works in isolation of the society it seeks to protect.” She praised churches for increasing spiritual sessions in Correctional Services by about 10 000 within in 2009/10 financial year, from 168 000 to 178 000.
She said solutions to the high crime levels facing South Africa lie in the hands of ordinary and extraordinary citizens who need to join hands with government to drive “moral regeneration and social crime prevention” as outlined in the White Paper, with the religious and spiritual community playing a central role. She said, “we are all spiritual beings created in God’s image, and the fact that we lose our humanity and commit heinous and despicable crimes, demonstrates first and foremost our disconnection with our Creator”.
She said although the retributive paradigm remains dominant in the minds of the majority, the solution to crime is not the construction of more prisons. She said, “instead of building more prisons, we should build more churches, schools, recreational facilities for our young men and women. We must continue to invest more on interventions that will rebuild our social fibre, people’s sense of purpose, social justice and above all their connection to the our Creator.”
Confirming the partnership with Correctional Services Pastor at Boschoff of the CRC Church said it is the church’s calling to “win the lost at any cost”. The service was transmitted live to Pretoria Correctional Centre, Groenpunt Correctional Centre to the CRC satellite centres in Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Durban.
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