Ministers responsible for Corrections/Prisons in Africa have pledged to drive the implementation of a Pan African Prison Reform Programme across the continent.
This was resolved at the two-day African Correctional Services (ACSA) Ministerial Consultative Forum (MCF) held in Pretoria on 3rd and 4th April 2014.
Addressing the ACSA MCF Gala Dinner over the weekend (4th April 2014), the MCF Chairperson, Correctional Service Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, said that Correctional Officials must be at the forefront of prison reform in the continent. “The most important ingredient for the success of correctional services is the Correctional Official. Cognisant of the value of our Correctional Officials, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) in South Africa accordingly declared 2013 ‘The Year of the Correctional Official’. We look forward to the day when as the continent, under ACSA, we will declare ‘A Decade of the Correctional Official’.
“Correctional Centres may be described as the physical or hardware infrastructure, and Correctional Officials as the software, or the heart, of the system of corrections. When society breaks down, Correctional Officials pick up the pieces and deal with the entirety of the human experience. When parents, the extended family, the Sunday school teacher, the public school educator, the ward councillor, the trade union representative, the university professor and everyone else has failed, Correctional Officials step in to remould the character, and improve the skills, of offenders so that they return to society with enhanced prospects of success. Correctional Officials cannot fail. They are society’s last bastion of hope.
“As ACSA, we should speak with one voice in our rejection of corrupt Correctional Officials. Such rot encourages crime, undermines rehabilitation and risks the lives of both inmates and offenders. The Correctional Official is the single most important person who mediates between an offender and society. The Official is expected to be a good role model for others in her or his presence. This official holds the power over the offender’s head. S/he may use this power to humiliate, and degrade the offender. In 1987, Winnie Mandela spoke about her horrible prison experience at the hands of belligerent, racist warders. She recollects that, ''The years of imprisonment hardened me.... Perhaps if you have been given a moment to hold back, and wait for the next blow, your emotions wouldn't be blunted as they have been in my case. When it happens every day of your life, when that pain becomes a way of life, I no longer have the emotion of fear... there is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn't any pain I haven't known’.
“Correctional Officials, on the other hand, can use their authority, and immense influential power, to inspire transformation and good behaviour from offenders. Let us return to our countries and remind our Correctional Officials of the teaching of Pope Francis that, ‘We are one people, with one heart and soul, gathered by the Lord who loves and sustains us...God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else - God is in this person’s life... Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow’.
“Correctional Officials need to also appreciate that many great leaders of the world, including those in Biblical times, had a stint in prison. Even in our present day, we continue to see men and women who defy to be reduced by prison and who leave prison to become respected leaders in society. Our founding President, the late Nelson Mandela, actually turned prison, with all its drudgery and humiliation, into a sanctuary of self-reflection, study and personal growth. He advised Winnie Mandela, in a February 1975 letter, while she was in prison at Kroonstad that, ‘Incidentally the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals, we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life. Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes. At least if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10th attempt may yield rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying’.
“The Correctional Official has a difficult, and thankless, job. Society rarely asks about the stress associated with caring for individuals who, generally, have tremendous animosity towards you. The rule of law, and the rule under law, expects Correctional Officials to maintain a professional demeanour at all times, and to be respectful, and impartial, towards inmates regardless of their personal beliefs. It is for this reason that we need to do more in communities to raise the status of Correctional Services. Here at home, we have found that the religious community, through a series of regular prayer meetings, is, particularly, central in raising the profile of the profession, and status, of the Correctional Official. As DCS, annually, we also host the highly prestigious Excellence Awards. These awards recognise those Correctional Officials who go beyond the call of duty in contributing towards safety, fighting fraud and corruption, promoting partnerships as well as advancing community participation and education in rehabilitation. We are confident that the day is coming when the continent will have its ACSA Excellence Awards, where our hard-working, and innovative, Correctional Officials will be recognised, and rewarded, on the big stage.
“Creating a sustained human rights culture at all our correctional centres in the continent will be a reaffirmation of Africa’s indestructible, and resilient, humanity. It is an expression of the renaissance of the soul, and persona of Africa. This rekindling allows us to rightly claim our heritage of dignity, hope, forgiveness and reconciliation. However, our Correctional Officials must be at the forefront of this rebirth,” Minister Ndebele said.
Enquiries:
Logan Maistry
Cell: 083 6444 050
