The issue of overcrowding has become one of the major concerns within the Department of Correctional Services in S.A. According to Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons quoted in Annual Report (2002/2003:4) in 2002 the South African offender population has been overpopulated by 72 000. The 236 correctional centres designed to accommodate 100 668 offenders were accommodating 172 071. The focus of this study is to explore the impact of prison circumstances in perpetuating recidivism. Glencoe correctional center is identified as the target centre. The total offender population has been estimated at 950 with 650 offenders being categorised as recidivists. The conclusions were drawn and presented as follows: • Peers have been found to be exercising a crucial role in influencing the behaviour of the offenders. The impact of this influence has been found to be posing a challenge on both individual and family values. • The impact of prison life manifested through processes like the use of drugs, involvement in gangs and identification with the prison life. • The prison system has not been able to convince the iii offenders in terms of fighting crime. Lack of proper security measures, lack of skills training interventions, unemployability of the offender and lack of job opportunities have been identified as challenges that disqualify the prison system as an effective crime prevention institution. • Lack of personnel and lack of policy implementation knowledge are some of the challenges associated with the difficulty in evaluating the appropriateness of rehabilitation programmes. • Sustaining the prison subculture manifested through processes such as identification with the negative role models, purposeful alienation from the community and condoning of violence. • The family system has been identified as another institution that contributes to the development of the prison subculture. • Family-related aspects were identified by the respondents as an area affected by imprisonment. • As indicated in by the theory of Kohlberg in Glick iv (1995:110), high levels of moral development would serve to keep offenders from committing further crime. • To promote offender’s readiness to face the societal life from a positive point of view, there is a need for assistance in drafting individual plans and strategies. • The expectations of the respondents on effective offender reintegration were shared and the relevant role-players were identified. Having drawn the conclusions, the following recommendations were made: • The research focused on sociologically related factors and as a result the need for further research, especially on biologically related factors, emerged. • The scope of the research widened to such an extent that the contributory factors of recidivism were covered at a more general level. Further research to cover the individual factors in more depth is recommended. • There is a need for structures to exercise advocacy intervention on behalf of the offenders in such a manner that they would have a say in issues affecting them. v • Attendance of rehabilitation programmes and demonstration of behavioural change should be awarded in order to serve as a motivation for positive behaviour change. • The need for equipping prison officials to be effective rehabilitators has been identified as a challenge to the prison system. • Integrated functioning of different role-players would serve to promote effective offender reintegration. • The offender needs to be assisted to envision and plan for the future. / Mrs. H.F. Ellis

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of interstate inmate transfers (IITs) by prison wardens and the administrative intent that guide their use. This study assesses the explanatory power of the new penology in three cases and asks three broad questions of two prison wardens and the DOC: What correctional goals do you hope to accomplish with interstate inmate transfers? Why? And what contextual factors (if any) are felt to inhibit or facilitate these goals? IITs are controversial. Supporters of IITs argue that in addition to serving the needs of correctional managers, they may also serve to help inmates reenter society, remain physically safe while incarcerated, remain close to family and friends, and have access to appropriate correctional programming and treatment. On the other hand, critics of IITs argue that they are much more than a correctional management tool. Rather, IITs are evidence of an informally emerging "new penology" in American corrections that—due to the increasingly problematic conditions of confinement encountered by correctional managers (e.g., overcrowding)—emphasize a shift in focus away from what is good for the individual inmate to what is good for managing the correctional system as a whole. The case data collected in this research contradict, to a large degree, new penological assumptions. The findings point to high levels of ideological and behavioral autonomy among prison wardens as well as high levels of individualized and moralistic thinking with regard to inmate management, and a general feeling that correctional management at the institutional level is only situationally (rather than perpetually) stressful. Thus, the new penological assumption that criminal justice actors lack human agency or that inmates are thought of only in actuarial terms, may be an incorrect or incomplete assumption in relation to prison wardens and the intent of IITs in these cases. This study concludes that in order to better understand and possibly predict the administrative intent of IITs, an alternative theoretical framework should be utilized—one that better captures the dynamism and variability of influence that unique situational and dispositional factors (and their interaction) may have on administrative intent.

No description available.

The World Prison Brief Walmsley (2001:2) reveals that there are 8,7 million people held in penal institutions throughout the world, either as pre-trial detainees or having been convicted and sentenced. Although the rising prison population in South Africa is of great concern, it is certainly not just a South African problem, but an international phenomenon. Prison overcrowding and the resultant financial and human rights problems related to this phenomenon, remain one of the paramount concerns of both developed and developing countries. Overcrowding of prisons negates the rehabilitation of offenders, undermines human dignity in correctional facilities and renders the safety and security of offenders and the community vulnerable. Another problem facing the Department of Correctional Services is the control of communicable diseases and viruses, particularly HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. The problem of overcrowding facilitates the easy spread of communicable diseases among inmates. Imprisonment as a sanction remains a reality. Providing alternatives to imprisonment, for example, community based-sanctions, does however ensure that a significant number of offenders can be dealt with in a more balanced manner. Alternative sanctions to incarceration can be more successful, less costly to the state, have fewer negative implications and will lighten the load for the criminal justice system, hence reducing overcrowding. In order to reduce the overcrowding in prisons there has to be a reduction in the number of both awaiting-trial and sentenced prisoners. Reducing the inflow of offenders from the courts to the prisons and trying to get minor offenders in prison to be released should accomplish this. Courts and magistrates must break away from centuries of reliance on imprisonment as punishment. If more people show interest in the human rights of incarcerated prisoners, then further effort will be placed on resolving the overpopulation problem facing the Department of Correctional Services. / Criminology / (D. Litt et Phil.(Penology))

Incarceration of offenders has been relied upon as the dominant sentence option through the years to address the objectives of punishment. Research has shown that the above-mentioned approach does not match the current lifestyle anymore. Correctional centres (prisons) not only in South Africa, but across the board are faced with the same challenge. This is of course not a problem of the Department of Correctional Services alone, but that of the entire justice system. It is therefore obligatory for Justice to join hands with society in accordance with the White Paper on Corrections in South Africa (2005:63-68). Playing a major role in all above-mentioned bodies is Parliament, without which the whole justice system would not exist, let alone functioning. The victims of crime would most probably not condone any soft approach towards treating offenders, worse with alleviating overpopulation by releasing inmates from correctional centres. It is the researcher's submission that the effects of overpopulation coupled with inmate's human rights, as entrenched in the Constitution becomes the major driving force to address overcrowding in our correctional centres. / Penelogy / (M.A. (Penelogy))

Incarceration of offenders has been relied upon as the dominant sentence option through the years to address the objectives of punishment. Research has shown that the above-mentioned approach does not match the current lifestyle anymore. Correctional centres (prisons) not only in South Africa, but across the board are faced with the same challenge. This is of course not a problem of the Department of Correctional Services alone, but that of the entire justice system. It is therefore obligatory for Justice to join hands with society in accordance with the White Paper on Corrections in South Africa (2005:63-68). Playing a major role in all above-mentioned bodies is Parliament, without which the whole justice system would not exist, let alone functioning. The victims of crime would most probably not condone any soft approach towards treating offenders, worse with alleviating overpopulation by releasing inmates from correctional centres. It is the researcher's submission that the effects of overpopulation coupled with inmate's human rights, as entrenched in the Constitution becomes the major driving force to address overcrowding in our correctional centres. / Penelogy / (M.A. (Penelogy))

The World Prison Brief Walmsley (2001:2) reveals that there are 8,7 million people held in penal institutions throughout the world, either as pre-trial detainees or having been convicted and sentenced. Although the rising prison population in South Africa is of great concern, it is certainly not just a South African problem, but an international phenomenon. Prison overcrowding and the resultant financial and human rights problems related to this phenomenon, remain one of the paramount concerns of both developed and developing countries. Overcrowding of prisons negates the rehabilitation of offenders, undermines human dignity in correctional facilities and renders the safety and security of offenders and the community vulnerable. Another problem facing the Department of Correctional Services is the control of communicable diseases and viruses, particularly HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. The problem of overcrowding facilitates the easy spread of communicable diseases among inmates. Imprisonment as a sanction remains a reality. Providing alternatives to imprisonment, for example, community based-sanctions, does however ensure that a significant number of offenders can be dealt with in a more balanced manner. Alternative sanctions to incarceration can be more successful, less costly to the state, have fewer negative implications and will lighten the load for the criminal justice system, hence reducing overcrowding. In order to reduce the overcrowding in prisons there has to be a reduction in the number of both awaiting-trial and sentenced prisoners. Reducing the inflow of offenders from the courts to the prisons and trying to get minor offenders in prison to be released should accomplish this. Courts and magistrates must break away from centuries of reliance on imprisonment as punishment. If more people show interest in the human rights of incarcerated prisoners, then further effort will be placed on resolving the overpopulation problem facing the Department of Correctional Services. / Criminology and Security Science / (D. Litt et Phil.(Penology))

This report is the culmination of literature study and semi-structured interviews which assisted in developing a Model for Implementation of Restorative Justice in the South African Correctional System. The study explores the use of Restorative Justice as part of rehabilitation in a prison setting. Literature focuses mainly on Restorative Justice as part of diversion, in cases of first offenders and less serious offences. Restorative Justice with sentenced offenders has been gaining momentum, though. Diversity in terms of language, cultural and religious practice as well as social background, should be considered as it affects the decision to enter into a Restorative Justice process. Restorative Justice with sentenced offenders is challenging and in the main a largely unsupported field. The study draws on experience from other countries, while at the same time advocate for uniquely South African practice. The involvement of the most important role players, namely victim, offender and the community is emphasized. Attitude and insufficient training seem to be some of the challenges for the implementation of Restorative Justice. Successes are reported in the few sites where Restorative Justice is implemented in the Correctional System, but a change of mindset, of being open to possibilities other than lock-up and punish in the entire Criminal Justice System is needed. Restorative Justice in the Correctional System seems to have been approached as yet another new programme, and not as a paradigm shift for the entire Criminal Justice System. Dealing with conflict in a restorative way should be at the front end of the chain, with young children whose behaviour can be directed, as changing behaviour of adults proves to be difficult. Repentance and forgiveness in different cultures and spiritual backgrounds are some of the issues that are grappled with, although forgiveness is nowhere indicated as a requirement for a successful Restorative Justice process. Voluntary participation is required from victims and offenders with support from communities. It remains a deeply spiritual and individual journey for those who choose to turn away from anger, fear and hatred, and start the process of personal healing and restoration. Restorative Justice with sentenced offenders can assist in dealing with the aftermath of crime. / Penology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Penology)

In this research project the overcrowding problem in South African prisons will be analysed as well as the influence it had on the rehabilitation of offenders. The problem of overcrowding in South Africa's prisons is very clear when the approved accommodation of a prison is compared with the actual number of prisoners incarcerated. Prison sentences are a favoured form of punishment throughout the world. More and more people seek alternatives to incarceration in order to reduce prison overcrowding. The time to finalize criminal cases, releases on bail, the abolishment of minimum sentences and better utilization of community based sentences are some of the issues which can reduce overcrowding. One of the concepts that was implemented to establish rehabilitation within prisons was Unit Management. The number of prisoners incarcerated makes it difficult for Unit Management to be effective. In some cases prisoners are kept under inhumane conditions which is a violation of the Constitution of South Africa. Currently the morale of members of Correctional Services is very low and this has an influence on the way in which they treat prisoners. These members are supposed to be an example to prisoners but instead their bad behaviour has a negative influence on prisoner's discipline. Correctional Services goal is to make every member a rehabilitator but overcrowding will first have to be reduced. Individual attention to prisoners is one of the building blocks of Unit Management but overcrowding of prisons creates a member/prisoner ratio which is far too high to be effective with rehabilitating prisoners. Community based sentences can also be utilized more frequently by the courts. It can better rehabilitation possibilities and through this the objectives of punishment are met. In the past the focus of South African Law was on the criminal. With the Correctional Services Act (Act 111/1998) this focus was shifted to the victim as well. Both these parties can now come together and discuss the offence as well as the influence it had on the victim. This is called restorative justice and it helps the offender with re-integration into the community. / Criminology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Penology)

This dissertation is the culmination of extensive literature study on the application of Restorative Justice in the South African Correctional System. International and national resources on the application of Restorative Justice both in Corrections and as pre-sentence option had been studied. The background of the penal system and the development of Restorative Justice as part of the Criminal Justice System are investigated by looking at ancient practices, indigenous and modern practices. The study intends to draw on experience from other countries, while at the same time advocate for the development of a uniquely South African model or practice. The role of the most important stakeholders, namely victim, offender and community is emphasized with reference to the challenges that offenders face in terms of reintegration and the lack of resources in communities to enable them to honour Restorative Justice agreements. / Criminology / M. A. (Criminology)