Programme Directors, Mr Abbey Metswamere and Mr Segoe
MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Hon Ms Kegakilwe
Acting Executive Mayor, Councillor Nakedi
Acting Regional Commissioner, Mr Makgoba
Area Commissioner, Mr Bruwer
Representative of the Youth Commission, Ms March
Non-governmental organisations
Department of Correctional Services (DCS) stakeholders, colleagues and offenders
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I feel very honoured to be part of this august gathering today, as we take forward the aims of our Corrections Week and celebrate the launch of the Basha Arts. The Corrections Week campaign began in September 2006 and is held annually. It allows us to dedicate a week to promote awareness of our correctional system. This year, Corrections Week must help us deepen our people’s understanding of the important role families must play in correcting and shaping the behaviour of offenders.
Corrections Week must help us mobilise all sectors of our population to join hands together to uproot crime and lawlessness. The business sector has a vital role to play in this regard. We have identified the following as our special focus areas for the week:
* Youth development;
* Offender labour;
* Promotion of visits to offenders;
* Parole system and restorative justice;
* Promotion of human rights of offenders by the Judicial Inspectorate; and
* Inter-faith services supporting corrections.
We are emphasising the role of families in rehabilitation because we have a serious challenge in our society. In the past, people were not shown the importance of the corrections system. Correctional facilities, that is, “prisons” in the language of the old order, were like “the ship of fools” in which offenders were dumped at the sea with no particular destination, and with no effort to mend their ways. Surely, destructive forms of punishment have no place in a democratic society that is based on the will of the people and respect for human rights
Parents, guardians, families and all of us have a role to play in the fight against crime. Since the dawn of democracy, we have come to understand that correctional centres must be used as institutions where people are re-educated; ensuring that they do not return to crime. It actually pains me to see young people your age in correctional facilities, with no liberty or freedom.
We were in Modimolle yesterday to launch Corrections Week. A young ex-offender who has changed his life motivated young offenders to make a choice. He said to them it is in their power to take decisions that will change their lives for the better. He spoke of correctional centres as “colleges” of education; and he called upon people to respect correctional officials because they do an important job of re-educating, and of moulding behaviour.
If we do not approach corrections as a societal responsibility, impressing upon the young offenders that there are endless opportunities waiting for them out there, they will be governed by the logic that says – “what does it matter”, because nobody cares. When families extend a gesture of love to their children and relatives, a clear message sent out to offenders is that “we are being loved, and therefore, why must we continue hurting ourselves and those who love us dearly”.
Today’s launch of the “Basha Arts Programme” for youth in conflict with the law fits neatly with this year’s theme of Corrections Week, that is, “Together doing more to break the cycle of crime”. This theme emphasises the importance of building those strong partnerships I have mentioned. It is these partnerships that will help us to maintain and protect a just, peaceful and safe society.
Basha Arts is a result of a partnership between the North West Provincial Youth Commission and the Department of Correctional Services. The project is a clear demonstration of togetherness and teamwork, showing how far we can go working together to do more. Of importance is also the fact that Basha Arts can be located within the special focus areas of the 2009 Corrections Week campaign, particularly the priority around youth development and the role of the family.
As we launch the Basha Arts programme, we need to remember that creative art can be used to highlight a specific offence or act of aggressive behaviour. For indeed cultural and artistic programmes can be used to raise awareness and to shape our ways of thinking. For example, gumboots dance can be used as a weapon to fight sexual offences. We therefore call upon our correctional centres to ensure that programmes of art and culture focus largely on themes related to rehabilitation and on changing behaviour patterns. Let us mobilise arts and culture to creatively break the cycle of crime.
Encouraged by the partnership shown by this wonderful initiative of Basha Arts, I call upon the North West community to join hands with Correctional Services and support the rehabilitation and social reintegration agenda. By doing this together, we can make this region a safe place to live in.
We thank the North West province and the Youth Commission for supporting our cause and for heeding like disciplined cadres, the call made by President Jacob Zuma during his first State of the Nation Address in Parliament. The President’s message to all of us was that: “Together we must do more to fight crime. Our aim is to establish a transformed, modernised, properly resourced and well managed Criminal Justice System.”
As government, we are aware of the many challenges currently facing our young people. We know how vulnerable they are to environmental pressures, including poverty, unemployment, peer- pressure, and the temptations to engage in criminal activity. We will be visiting Leeuwkop tomorrow to educate young learners and offenders about crime prevention. We will impress upon them the importance of education in their lives, and urge them to find positive role models who will help them to redefine their environment and set their own agenda.
It is our hope that the establishment of the National Youth Development Agency will go a long in addressing the plight of the youth, by among other things, producing coherent programmes that will help fast-track youth development and growth. Such programmes will advance our efforts aimed at breaking the cycle of crime in our country, by ensuring young people are meaningfully engaged in the development and growth of our democratic society. Families and all sectors of society therefore have an important role to play in all this.
As Correctional Services, we are greatly disturbed by the number of your offenders in our facilities. Most of them are between the ages of 19 and 25 years. They are housed in thirteen youth centres. We are equally concerned by the nature of crimes they have committed. The majority, as you may know, like we saw in Modimolle yesterday, are in the aggressive crime category, followed by economic crimes.
According to statistics released in August of this year, there are 23 674 sentenced male offenders and 33 946 unsentenced offenders. It is very worrying that we have a grand total of 55 172 young people, our hope for the future, behind the bars. In this region, we have a total of 5263 young people in our correctional facilities.
We have to appeal to the youth in this region to make use of the opportunities for rehabilitation provided by the Department of Correctional Services in partnership with the various civil society formations and sister departments, like Social Development, Education, and the police.
To give effect to our rehabilitation agenda, we have developed the Offender Rehabilitation Path. This project, which we call the Offender Rehabilitation Path, was developed to implement the objectives of The White Paper on Corrections. It explains what happens to the offender from the point of entering the Correctional Centre to the point when the person is released and reintegrated into society.
To make it effective, and needs-based, the Offender Rehabilitation Path is divided into nine stages that must be taken by each offender. These stages are the following:
* Admission;
* Assessment and profiling;
* Admission into a housing unit;
* Intervention;
* Monitoring and evaluation;
* Placement;
* Allocation to pre-release unit;
* Pre-admission; and
* Release.
Time will not permit us to explain all these stages in detail. The assessment and profiling stage is very crucial as it informs the interventions needed to address the specific needs of the offender through what is called the Correctional Sentence Plan. The analysis of information gathered through assessment of needs and risks informs the profile of each offender and assists us to plan unique interventions for each offender rather than putting them in one basket.
Lastly, I challenge this gathering and society at large to use Corrections Week to reflect on our gains and challenges and find peaceful and productive ways of resolving our differences. Let us all be guided by the spirit of “ubuntu”, that says, “I am because we are”. For these reasons, I had to emphasise the important role of families, business, civil society and government to break the vicious cycle of crime. Let us remember that when all else fails, and friends and neighbours have rejected offenders who’ve been released, the family often has no choice but to be the one that accepts loved ones back.
An important message to the young offenders here is that much as we try our level best to improve your situation by preparing you for a second chance, you are the captains of your ship. You are the ones who have the choice and the power to decide what becomes of you. It is only when you choose to get out of here as newly designed persons that your lives can change for the better. And on this, make no mistake, you are not doing your parents or close ones any favour.
So, live in such a way that you shall be remembered for the contribution you have made in society like many young people your age have done for you and for South Africa, that we may be free. You have great examples of lives lived for the good of society, think of the finest sons and daughters of your country, like Solomon Mahlangu, Ashley Kriel and many others.
As you celebrate Heritage Day on the 24th, use the time to reflect on our rich cultures and diversity.
It is our wish that you should enjoy the 2010 Soccer World Cup as free souls. I wish you all a fruitful and fulfilling Corrections Week and Heritage Day.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
David Hlabane, MLO for Deputy Minister Mkhise
Cell: 082 056 3499
Tel: 012 305 8220.
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
22 September 2009
