M.A. / Community corrections or correctional supervision, which falls under the Department of Correctional Services and was established in 1991 in South Africa, serves as an alternative sentence and to cater for people who are on parole. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a life skills programme at Johannesburg Community Corrections rendered to probationers by social workers. Probationers are people who have been given a sentence of correctional supervision by the court. The probationers are compelled to attend one of the established programmes, for example, life skills programmes, as one of the conditions of their sentence. Community corrections B-Order (1991: 34) states that programmes are directly focused on the typical problem area or behaviour of the probationer and shall be aimed at: • preventing further crime perpetration; • improving general sense of responsibility; • acquiring social skills; • improving family relations; and • preventing alcohol and drug abuse. The aim of this study was to evaluate a life skills workshop presented by Johannesburg Community Corrections to probationers in 2000. A representative sample of twenty respondents who attended a life skills programme from April to May 2000 was used for this study. The findings indicated that the programme addresses the above-mentioned problem areas for probationers. From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that most of the probationers, after being exposed to the programme, show great improvement when it comes to the acquisition of social skills, a general sense of family responsibility, attitude towards crime, and family relations. They are positive about their future and they perceive the wrongs they have done as a learning experience. The research design was both quantitative and qualitative in nature and an interview schedule was completed for the purpose of data collection. The results of this study indicated that the programme is effective. The majority of the respondents stated that after being exposed to the programme, their perception, attitude, thinking and life style had changed. The programme has to be modified, as it does not address entrepreneurial and business management skills. Furthermore, it does not include entrepreneurial skills training, which would ultimately help and assist probationers to gain employment or to be self-employed through training in terms of being self-reliant and self-employed. / Prof. J.B.S. Nel
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:12777 |
| Date | 20 October 2008 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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