Programme director, Ms Matshabane
Members of the Judiciary
Acting Deputy Regional Commissioner, Mr Le Grange
Acting Area Commissioner, Mr Mzanywa
Head of Pollsmoor Female Correctional Centre, Ms Motsie
Representative of Acting National Commissioner, Mr Mkheshana
Representative from the Department of Education, Ms Niekerk
Our women inmates
Colleagues
Distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
I am grateful to be here in the Western Cape region, to continue with the implementation of the Imbeleko Project. We fully realise that each region is unique and has specific needs, challenges and opportunities. Hence we have taken the decision to support our officials with the roll out process.
Our aim is to protect and uphold what is in the best interest of the child and to promote and defend the rights of women in our correctional centres.
Unpacking the Imbeleko Project
Imbeleko is a two-pronged initiative aimed at improving the lives of children who find themselves behind bars with their incarcerated mothers. The first pillar is focused on creating a humane, secure and home-like environment for the child within our correctional facilities.
Creative ways of devising a child-friendly environment include converting existing cells into suitable mother-and-child units and decorating such units differently, making them more stimulating for children and more comfortable for the incarcerated mother to concentrate on the child’s needs. Nowadays such settings are being created worldwide. We were introduced to impressive alternatives for accommodating female offenders when we recently visited correctional centres in Australia; you could see that those facilities were constructed with women’s rights and gender sensitivities in mind.
The second pillar of Imbeleko involves finding alternative placement for children outside our facilities, with the consent of mothers of course. Alternative accommodation within communities includes secure and appropriate centres; suitable government institutions; private homes and homes of families.
It is important to be mindful of the fact that some mothers do not only face the problem of living with children inside correctional centres, but also live with serious concerns, worries and pains of knowing that they are not able to care for and to protect their other children at home.
The mother’s readiness to accept the baby’s placement is also very important. We want to say to the mothers: we won’t do anything that will add to your pain. You have paid the price, by losing freedom and liberty. Be assured that Imbeleko aims to find proper alternative care for your babies. A correctional centre is not a place for children.
Creating awareness about the plight of children who are incarcerated with their mothers is timely, as all South Africans will be commemorating the National Children’s Day tomorrow.
Regional implementation
We launched Imbeleko in the Eastern Cape, at the East-London Correctional Centre, on 26 August 2009. The East-London Correctional Centre showed creative ways of accommodating babies in special units a clear departure from the insensitive confinement of children and mothers in restrictive and depressing environments that are not at all conducive to the socialisation, nurturing and bonding of mothers and their babies. The involvement of the broader community proved that the success of this project depends on the involvement of all sections of our population, particularly women and children’s rights activists.
From the Eastern Cape, we went to KwaZulu-Natal where we formally introduced Imbeleko at the Durban-Westville Correctional Centre, on 18 September 2009. Again, in this region, we learnt about challenges faced by mothers from remote rural communities in the absence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other secure child care facilities easily accessible in urban areas.
For today, the Western Cape region offers us an opportunity to explore an ideal and conducive environment for child care within a correctional facility. As in other regions, the population of correctional centres in the Western Cape includes female offenders the majority of whom have committed serious crimes. In this region, we currently have a total of 757 women, 252 un-sentenced and 505 sentenced. Some argue that this is a small number, but for us one woman in a correctional facility is one woman too many.
The 13 mothers incarcerated with their babies in this correctional centre are serving terms for the following offences: Theft seven; parole violation and theft one; fraud and forgery two; murder and arson one and murder two. We note with concern that these mothers are at the prime of life with ages ranging from 20 to 46, yet are locked-up with little children between five days and one year old in these grey cells previously built with a hardened criminal man in mind.
In this region, we currently have 13 pregnant women. Special arrangements must be made for them while they are awaiting the birth of their children and also during their nursing period. The physical safety of women should be guaranteed while they are incarcerated; and the wellbeing and security of children deserve urgent attention.
This region has divided women facilities under four districts, with the aim of accommodating female offenders in areas near to their families as far as possible. In Oudshoorn, there are six babies, ranging in age from five days to one year. In Pollsmoor, there are 13 babies between one month and 15 months.
The context
When we presented our budget vote in June 2009 we made a commitment to pay serious attention to the plight of vulnerable groups in our correctional centres, including women and children. Imbeleko is a concrete project through which we want to realise such an ideal.
Current statistics as of October 2009 indicate that there are 120 babies within correctional facilities nationally, distributed per region, as follows:
Gauteng: 54
LMN: 15
KwaZulu-Natal: 20
Free State/Northern Cape: 10
Western Cape: 19
Eastern Cape: 2
The rights of mothers and children to family life require special consideration. The proportion of women in incarceration in any correctional system throughout the world varies between two to eight percent (two to eight percent). Our own statistics in South Africa bear testimony to this. The national offender profile using statistical data up to June 2008 shows that female offenders constitute 2.2 percent of the total sentenced offenders.
Our visits to correctional facilities have also shown that incarcerating children together with their mothers for long periods negatively affects their growth and chances in life. National Institute for the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO) agrees in a 2006 study the influence of imprisonment on infants and children incarcerated with their mothers that the facilities currently catering for infants and children who stay with their incarcerated mothers are a restrictive environment hampering the child’s psychological, cognitive and social development.
In fact, the truth of the matter is that correctional facilities in South Africa prisons in the old country were never meant to house women and babies. In Long Walk to Freedom, former President Nelson Mandela reminded us of the appalling conditions in the very Pollsmoor that now houses women and babies. He said, “Pollsmoor maximum security prison has a modern face but a primitive heart. The buildings, particularly the ones for the prison staff, were clean and contemporary; but the housing for the prisoners was archaic and dirty (1994:501). Pollsmoor was a world of concrete,” (Ibid, p. 502).
This cannot be a place suitable for the normal and healthy growth of little babies. Correctional Services cannot do these things alone. Partnerships with all stakeholders including our sister Departments like Education, Justice, the Police and Social Development are very critical. Working together we can do more for our children.
Legal, policy and humanitarian United Nations (UN) instruments
We have a constitutional duty to defend the rights of women and children rendered vulnerable by male-dominated communities. Our Constitution, which has an entrenched Bill of Rights, states in section 28(1) that every child has the right to “family care or parental care, or to appropriate alternative care when removed from the family environment, and that every child has the right to “basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services.”
The Correctional Services Amendment Act of 2008 makes provision for an independent inspection by the judicial inspectorate to ensure that human rights are upheld in our correctional facilities. We call upon the judge to have special teams that will focus on the vulnerable groups, like women, children and people living with disabilities.
This is in line with the standard minimum rules for the treatment of Prisoners, Rule 55. The latter instrument calls for the inspection of penal institutions and services by qualified inspectors appointed by a competent authority. The Act (2008) has also made it possible for us to reduce the period that babies spend with their mothers in correctional facilities, from five to two years.
South Africa’s commitment to children’s rights is shown by the fact that we are bound by international agreements on the protection of children and women. These include the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child which makes provision for interventions appropriate to the child’s wellbeing while under institutional care.
We are encouraged by work of Princess Bajrakitiyabha of Thailand, who is a renowned Goodwill Ambassador for the United Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). She is currently campaigning for the review of the United Nations Standard Minimum rules of Prisoners to include the specific needs that may no longer be adequately addressed by the current rules. She has called for the development of supplementary rules for treatment of women in detention.
The proposed draft rules are meant to ensure that incarcerated women are treated with respect and dignity, are not subjected to abuse, including sexual abuse, and receive adequate health care for themselves and for their young children who they are nursing or caring for in correctional centres.
Conclusion
Much as the Imbeleko Project is campaigning for the creation of a conducive environment for mothers and babies behind bars, it is important to think more and more about alternatives to incarceration. When a woman is incarcerated, the consequences for the family that is left behind can be very severe. This situation calls for a careful scrutiny of our criminal justice system.
The Inspecting Judge of Correctional Services, the Honourable Judge Van Zyl, has stressed the need for judicial officers to implement legislative alternatives rather than incarceration even for petty offences. We can apply alternatives such as the plea-bargaining and victim compensation to keep petty offenders out of correctional centres (Annual Report 2008/09, Judicial Inspectorate: 22).
Every South African can enhance the wellbeing of a needy child, by supporting the Adopt a Child Campaign and by helping us to find alternative accommodation for babies behind bars. The principle from each according to his ability is relevant in this context. With your help we can transform the primitive heart of Pollsmoor into an environment fit for children. Remember that a country that turns its children into inmates of a special type is doomed to a life of perpetual crime and broken dreams; it will continue to reproduce the conditions giving rise to crime and lawlessness.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
David Hlabane
Cell: 082 052 3499
E-mail: david.hlabane@dcs.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
6 November 2009
