L Jacobus: Opening of Second Chance Conference

13 August 2007

Programme Director,
Trustees of the International Award Association,
Sister Judith and David Clarke and staff of the International
Secretariat,
Clewlow (and trustees of The President's Award for Youth Empowerment,
Martin Scholtz, CEO of the Award Programme in South Africa,
Honoured delegates from 17 countries around the world,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen

It is such a pleasure for me to welcome all of you to South Africa, a
country full of possibilities for all its people and visitors. As our 'teenage'
democracy is grappling with major challenges of social cohesion, dealing with
the legacy of a brutal system of apartheid, poverty, crime and spatial
under-development that affects the majority of its citizens, it is also
creating exciting, numerous opportunities. Choosing South Africa as your venue
for this Global Conference is spot on, because we are at a critical stage of
driving the implementation of a dynamic constitutional, legislative and policy
framework that is hailed internationally as one of the best in the world.

I am happy to say The President's Award - right from the outset of this
young democracy - built a formidable partnership with the Department of
Correctional Services, that kicked off with only 14 offenders participating
from St Albans Correctional Centre in 1994, to over 20 000 volunteer young
offenders by 2007 spanning over 50 correctional centres nationally, a
phenomenal development indeed.

You have also chosen August – a month we have dedicated for the celebration
of South African women's triumphant spirit that inspired them to brave life
odds to ensure a better life for all our people. Just four days ago President
Thabo Mbeki led a tribute to the heroines of 1956 that marched to the Union
buildings to declare their rejection of apartheid and its practices as an
abomination to human kind. We also use this period to take stock of the
progress made towards the realisation of those pioneers’ vision of a better
life for all.

Our verdict thus far tells of a best constitutional, legislative and policy
framework whose implementation cries for multiplication of efforts by all
involved, because the majority of women and children are still facing the
reality of abject poverty, underdevelopment and gender based violence
perpetuated by not just their spouses but their children.

The increasing numbers of young people charged with and convicted of violent
and aggressive crimes including rape and murder is a graphic representation of
the challenges as a nation in general and the Department of Correctional
Services in particular are grappling with. These are manifestations of among
others deep rooted gender based stereotypes, absence of hope and poor
self-esteem resulting from poverty and dysfunctional families that continue to
produce degenerated individuals. In our White Paper on Corrections in South
Africa passed by Cabinet in February 2005 we call for the creation of a
societal environment with a correcting influence, which is a responsibility of
all community, national and international players.

Therefore, your contribution in addressing these challenges through The
President's Award programme will always be cherished by Correctional Services
and our nation. Your involvement and participation rejuvenates us to spare no
energy in optimising corrections and rehabilitation programmes aimed at young
offenders and all other categories of offenders.

We wish to join you in marking the 51 anniversary of The Duke of Edinburgh's
Award and take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh himself
for spearheading this initiative that has since grown to cover over 120
countries of the world, promoting values and principles that remain a relevant
today as they were 51 years ago.

In the same vain I also wish to pay tribute to South Africa's father of
Democracy, human rights and development, our first Democratic President, Nelson
Mandela.

He accepted being a Patron of The President's Award for Youth Empowerment in
1994 and had remained an inspiration to many participating offenders who
soldiered through the challenging programme in order to meet u-Tata u-Mandela
at the Gold Award Ceremony. Driven by his profound belief in the goodness of
humanity, President Nelson Mandela said (I am paraphrasing him) a nation's
development should be assessed in terms of how it treats its lowest and weakest
citizens which include women, children and offenders.

The visionary leadership demonstrated by these statesmen will always inspire
us to strive for a better life for all against many societal odds.

Correctional Services is undergoing a profound change. We are transforming a
prison system characterised by a dehumanising culture that earned prisons a
grading of 'Universities of Crime' where naïve and weaker young and first time
offenders are groomed to be hardened criminals. We are building a Correctional
System that has the requisite capacity to re-humanise and mould crashed
personalities that have lost their human character through intensive and
extensive correction and rehabilitation programmes.

We have committed ourselves to turn around every prison warder whose sole
focus is security into a correctional official whose character is defined by a
focus on rehabilitation of offenders for successful social re-integration. We
hope to achieve these ideals through various interventions including the
appropriate recruitment, training, retraining and creation of an encouraging
environment for all workers. We are marching towards these ideals, however
there is still 'a long walk' to their realisation because of numerous societal
and institutional factors that continuously militate against the attainment of
our goals.

These include the changing profile of our Awaiting Trial Detainees (ATDs)
and sentenced offenders in all categories. Over the last seven years numbers of
offenders sentenced for aggressive crimes increased by 12%, from 44,93% of the
total population in 2000 to 56,96% in 2006. What is even more disturbing is
that these trends are also registered among children and women categories with
numbers of children sentenced for aggressive crime surpassing numbers of those
sentenced for economic and poverty related crimes.

These developments have major policy and resource implications for our
nation.
More offenders are occupying more bed spaces for much longer, putting a strain
on available facilities which are already congested. If the trend is sustained
there will be lesser and lesser offenders qualifying for rehabilitation
programmes as more will be placed in maximum security facilities where greater
emphasis is on security to prevent escapes than on rehabilitation. With an
expectation to declare, upgrade or build more maximum facilities to meet the
new needs more human resources will have to be deployed for addressing this
challenge.

The role of the President's Awards for young offenders becomes more and more
critical in the scenario I have tried to paint and we will also have to
consider how we can broaden the scope and the reach of the programme and the
levels of collaboration with various players. Intervention is required for all
'young stars' at risk of being 'young offenders' with dedicated youth
intervention programmes probably similar to what the Taiwanese are doing and
what has been introduced by the Russians. We need to intensify programmes aimed
at ameliorating the effect of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment on
young people through teaching of national values, norms and discipline through
youth camps, critical skills required by the economy to reduce huge
unemployment while there are high vacancy rates in some fields.

We must invest more intensively in prevention programmes to help youth in
self-discovery, self-development, self-reliance, responsibility and service to
the community. The Award Programme in South Africa is addressing this through
their Phakama Programme which focuses on young people in marginalised
communities. We need to sustain the interventions to rehabilitate and correct
those that have fallen foul of the law and also assist in ensuring successful
social re-integration after their release from correctional centres.

In the light of growing sexual offences with sentenced offender population
increasing from 11,72% in 2000 to 15,84% in 2006, The President's Award scheme
needs to introduce and emphasise gender education and training for young
offenders in order to help uproot the entrenched stereotypes that land many
male offenders behind bars. Women and children must feel safer and secure in
their environment, because our nation cannot celebrate freedom and prosperity
while an overwhelming majority is in fear, in chains and is not enjoying these
freedoms.

As the country is experiencing a surge in crime the question of how
effective is our role as Correctional Services at the tail end of the criminal
justice system in preventing and fighting crime is gaining intensity. As we
strongly believe that corrections is a societal responsibility, the platforms
like this conference should be appreciated and broadened with round table
discussions that would inform policy and its implementation. The sharing of
best practices will definitely help us sharpen our interventions aimed at
building a correctional system in South Africa that all can be proud of.

I have noted with great appreciation the positive feedback from
participating officials and offenders in my department who have unanimously
praised your programme as helping in building self-esteem, a positive outlook
of life and a hope for the future. Many have acknowledged that the programme
has given them a new perspective of life with unprecedented appreciate of
humanity and without uncontrolled anger and conflict.

To carry the triumphant spirit of the 1956 women that marched against
oppression, we endeavour to expand the reach of The President's Award within
our facilities and to do all in our power to protect women and children through
rehabilitating young offenders and ensuring public safety and security from
those with limited chances of rehabilitation.

I can assure you that you will enjoy your stay in South Africa and that you
will find reasons for coming back even before the 2010 World Soccer
Spectacular.

May your deliberation be as fruitful as ever, and may your conference be one
of the most memorable ones in the history of The International Award.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
13 August 2007