Pretoria
- Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele says rehabilitation
and reintegration of convicts is central to his department attaining its
goal of turning around inmates.
Addressing the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday during
the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) budget vote policy
debate, Ndebele said: “Central to imprisonment is not the removal of a
person from normal, unhindered membership of society.
“It is not just the grim and stoical doing time. It is not even regret and remorse. What is central is rehabilitation and reintegration as a better human being,” he said.
Ndebele said society and corrections could do much more, but everything depended on what the offender did to change.
“Offenders must use their time in a correctional centre to discover their real talents and capabilities,” he said.
At least 95 percent of those incarcerated return to society after serving their sentence.
Ndebele said they were turning correctional centres into centres of learning. He urged inmates to read, study and work.
“We must impact the hearts, heads and hands of offenders,” Ndebele said.
Offenders give back
According to Ndebele, the latest National Offender Population Profile (September 2012), the major crime categories were economic, aggressive, sexual and narcotics.
Gauteng had the largest share of the sentenced offender population at 23.21 percent, while the Eastern Cape had the lowest (12.14 percent), KwaZulu-Natal (18.76 percent), the Limpopo/Mpumalanga/North West (LMN) region (15.7 percent), the Northern Cape/Free State region (15.07 percent) and Western Cape (15.41 percent).
In terms of unsentenced offenders, Gauteng had the highest number (28.81 percent), while the LMN Region had the lowest (11.25 percent), Eastern Cape (12.17 percent), KwaZulu-Natal (18.85 percent), Northern Cape/Free State (11.34 percent) and Western Cape (21.59 percent).
Numerous rehabilitation and reintegration programmes were being rolled out in provinces.
In Gauteng, learners in conflict with the law were taken on tours to correctional centres as a crime prevention measure.
Inmates, parolees and ex-offenders are utilised to intensify crime awareness campaigns in schools, encouraging learners to pursue a crime-free life.
Through the Organic Crop Circles Project, offender labour is used to encourage communities to feed themselves.
At schools in the Soweto and Johannesburg South areas, produce is supplied to school feeding schemes. At the Helen Joseph Hospital, parolees/probationers serve as administrators and porters assisting patients.
Through the Clean Sweep Jo’Burg Project, offenders clean the inner city, including train tracks.
In the Free State/Northern Cape region, offenders clean state institutions such as schools and clinics. Winters jackets are being sewn from off cuts, and handed to disadvantaged communities and street kids.
Land was donated by a member of the Edenburg community and it is being used to plant vegetables by offenders. The produce is donated to disadvantaged community members.
Offenders are making coffins for families who cannot afford coffins. Officials donate, on an annual basis, school uniforms and shoes, to Madikane and Louwryville Primary schools. – SAnews.gov.za
“It is not just the grim and stoical doing time. It is not even regret and remorse. What is central is rehabilitation and reintegration as a better human being,” he said.
Ndebele said society and corrections could do much more, but everything depended on what the offender did to change.
“Offenders must use their time in a correctional centre to discover their real talents and capabilities,” he said.
At least 95 percent of those incarcerated return to society after serving their sentence.
Ndebele said they were turning correctional centres into centres of learning. He urged inmates to read, study and work.
“We must impact the hearts, heads and hands of offenders,” Ndebele said.
Offenders give back
According to Ndebele, the latest National Offender Population Profile (September 2012), the major crime categories were economic, aggressive, sexual and narcotics.
Gauteng had the largest share of the sentenced offender population at 23.21 percent, while the Eastern Cape had the lowest (12.14 percent), KwaZulu-Natal (18.76 percent), the Limpopo/Mpumalanga/North West (LMN) region (15.7 percent), the Northern Cape/Free State region (15.07 percent) and Western Cape (15.41 percent).
In terms of unsentenced offenders, Gauteng had the highest number (28.81 percent), while the LMN Region had the lowest (11.25 percent), Eastern Cape (12.17 percent), KwaZulu-Natal (18.85 percent), Northern Cape/Free State (11.34 percent) and Western Cape (21.59 percent).
Numerous rehabilitation and reintegration programmes were being rolled out in provinces.
In Gauteng, learners in conflict with the law were taken on tours to correctional centres as a crime prevention measure.
Inmates, parolees and ex-offenders are utilised to intensify crime awareness campaigns in schools, encouraging learners to pursue a crime-free life.
Through the Organic Crop Circles Project, offender labour is used to encourage communities to feed themselves.
At schools in the Soweto and Johannesburg South areas, produce is supplied to school feeding schemes. At the Helen Joseph Hospital, parolees/probationers serve as administrators and porters assisting patients.
Through the Clean Sweep Jo’Burg Project, offenders clean the inner city, including train tracks.
In the Free State/Northern Cape region, offenders clean state institutions such as schools and clinics. Winters jackets are being sewn from off cuts, and handed to disadvantaged communities and street kids.
Land was donated by a member of the Edenburg community and it is being used to plant vegetables by offenders. The produce is donated to disadvantaged community members.
Offenders are making coffins for families who cannot afford coffins. Officials donate, on an annual basis, school uniforms and shoes, to Madikane and Louwryville Primary schools. – SAnews.gov.za
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