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
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:10465 |
| Date | 14 July 2008 |
| Creators | Sithole, Mbongeni S. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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