The national Commissioner of Correctional Services, Tom Moyane says the time has come for all African governments to take prisons seriously and invest more in the administration of prisons or corrections.
In a statement issued to mark the second anniversary celebrations of the establishment of an all Africa corrections body called African Correctional Services Association (ACSA) established in Zambia on 26 September 2008, Commissioner Moyane said without better investment in prisons all efforts to fight crime and strengthen the criminal justice systems will fail as prisons will be just be a big revolving door for more and more hardened criminals that continue to terrorise the people.
He said corrections or prison systems across the continent face high levels of overcrowding, prevalence of HIV and AIDS, archaic prison infrastructure, sluggish management of awaiting trial systems which contribute in building instead of reducing high rates of overcrowding.
"Calls for families, communities and stakeholders to treat corrections as a societal responsibility must be buoyed by governments allocating better budgets to improve prison conditions and stop treating these institutions as appendages of Justice and Police departments", said Commissioner Moyane.
Commissioner Moyane was elected Secretary of African Correctional Services Association at its first Biennial Conference held in Accra, Ghana from 13 to 17 September 2010.
He said the ACSA will be a failed expensive experiment if its member states do not succeed to convince political office bearers and parliaments of the Continent to champion for increasing of budgetary allocations to corrections or prisons services, professionalisation and improvement of conditions of service in corrections.
"The history of prisons in the continent is characterised by a series of major and common challenges that that are partly evidence of being an afterthought in societal designs, reconstruction and development.
"It is now that corrections must not be left out of growing momentum for the development and democratisation of Continent under the auspices of the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) if the following challenges are to be history:
- General funding gap in corrections or prisons in the continent. The gross under resourcing of the correctional or prison system leaves many countries unable to turn around their dilapidated prison systems originally designed to "warehouse criminals" under colonial regimes.
- Excessive overcrowding with some correctional centres in the continent reaching shocking levels of 500 percent of the designated capacity for locking up inmates.
- Malfunctioning criminal justice systems that result in some countries having 92 percent of inmates as awaiting trial detainees, many of whom spend up to eight years waiting for their cases to be concluded in order to start serving their sentences.
- Paying lip service to the centrality of rehabilitation as investments within our correctional system continue to reflect yesteryear emphasis on security, neglecting needs for more capacity and delivery on programmes aimed at correcting offending behaviour, education and skills development, psychological and emotional support for offenders.
- Staff challenges as characterised by limited capacity for execution of rehabilitation programmes, non-recognition of corrections as a profession and a career of choice and absence of professional academies for staff training and development.
- Predominance of silo operational strategies by police, justice and correctional services as efforts to integrate and fully align various aspects of the criminal justice systems have yet to take effective root.
- Dismal participation of society with all its formations like families, communities, businesses, labour formations and general civil society institutions like non-governmental and faith-based organisations."
He acknowledged that more and more pockets of excellence are emerging in the continent and called for establishment of learning networks in order to share best practices that have proved successful in many countries.|
He said "paramount to our mission as ACSA executive committee for the next two years is to turn the five year strategic plan adopted at the ACSA conference into reality."
The strategic plan's focal areas include strengthening of governance frameworks, technical assistance, external and legal affairs with a view to building the capacity of Member Countries to effectively execute their mandate and establishing ACSA as a vibrant corrections body in the continent.
Another great achievement was the adoption of the week of 26 September to 3 October 2010 as the corrections Week during which the 18 member states of ACSA are expected to celebrate in various forms the founding of ACSA in Livingstone, Zambia on 26 September 2008.
He said like Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will do, Ministers responsible for corrections or prison services in ACSA member countries will lead these celebrations and where possible heads or deputy heads of state will be involved.
Executive Committee consist of Zambia (chairperson), Namibia (vice-chairperson), South Africa (secretary), Tanzania (vice-secretary), Ghana (treasurer), Swaziland (vice-treasurer), Sudan (vice-chairperson: North Africa), Kenya (vice-chairperson: East Africa), Nigeria (vice-chairperson: West Africa), Angola (vice-chairperson: Central Africa) and Lesotho (vice-chairperson: Southern Africa).
The commissioner also took a swipe at leaders and managers of prison who tend to play victim of exogenous factors driven by other players within the criminal justice system and society instead of taking full responsibility to lead in addressing prison challenges.
He said many become professional bureaucrats instead of activist to transformation of prisons to be people's correctional systems. He called on heads of corrections or prisons to be activist t
- Spearhead a campaign to centralise rehabilitation and social re-integration, not as a soft response to crime but as a profoundly effective intervention to protect the next victims of crime and reduce levels of re-offending which have characterised the expedient retributive paradigm to crime handling for years in our countries.
- Establishment of pre-release facilities for ensuring integration into the society for inmates who have been assessed and followed their programmes.
- Intensify campaigns aimed at promoting collective ownership of the responsibility of crime prevention, correcting offending behaviour and social re-integration of those that harmed society by committing crime.
- Double efforts to mobilise for appropriately investment in corrections by our governments, business and society in general.
- Translate the protocols, conventions and policy frameworks that call for greater emphasis on rehabilitation and social re-integration; and
m.Strengthen research and development in Corrections in order to heighten sharing of best practices and establish learning networks.
Commissioner Moyane said South Africa's Corrections Week celebrations in 2010 will highlight among others:
- Great rehabilitation work done through exhibitions held in most of the department’s 48 management areas of Correctional Services with Minister Mapisa-Nqakula leading a high level delegation to Pietermaritzburg Correctional Centre on Monday, 27 September 2010
- The unveiling of Correctional Services plan for intensifying offender labour when Minister Mapisa-Nqakula will lead the renovation of a dilapidated primary school in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape on 28 September 2010
- The official opening of over 30 new offices of Parole Boards built at a cost of over R100 million with the Minister Mapisa-Nqakula cutting a ribbon at Boksburg Correctional Centre in Gauteng on 29 September 2010; and
- A corrections music festival aimed at showcasing the best musical talents Correctional Services has developed which is meant to coincide with the start of a now legendary Mangaung African Cultural Festival (Macufe) in Bloemfontein on 1 October 2010. The rest of the Corrections Week 2010 campaign is attached for your ease of reference.
Enquiries:
Manelisi Wolela
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