Department Regional Commissioners: briefings

Meeting report

CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
27 August 2004
DEPARTMENT REGIONAL COMMISSIONERS: BRIEFINGS

Chairperson:

Presentation by Western Cape Regional Commissioner
Presentation by Eastern Cape Regional Commissioner
Presentation by Kwazulu-Natal Regional Commissioner

SUMMARY
The Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal Regional Commissioners outlined their regional structures; implementation of operational plans; a breakdown of offender populations and the degree of overcrowding, inmate health, composition and training of professional staff; and plans to meet challenges.

During the following discussions, Members questioned whether inmates were taught technical skills that would enable them to find work after prison; when the 25 vacancies for nursing staff in the Western Cape region would be advertised; the causes of the Eastern Cape's problems with non-retention of professionals; its measures to address prison overcrowding, and whether the plea bargaining project could assist. The Department was also asked to explain the reasons for the deaths at the Pollsmoor prison over the weekend; how 25 inmates had escaped from Eastern Cape prisons; whether the Department was monitoring the health of inmates at prison arrival; the Department's plans to guard against recidivism, and its programmes to successfully reintegrate offenders into society.

MINUTES

Western Cape Regional Commissioner's briefing
Mr B Gxilishe, Regional Commissioner of the Eastern and Western Cape, conducted the presentation (document attached) which outlined regional structure; implementation of operational plans; a breakdown of the offender population and the degree of overcrowding, inmate health, and composition and training of professional staff.

Eastern Cape Regional Commissioner's briefing
Ms N Tseane, Deputy Regional Commissioner of the Eastern Cape, conducted the presentation (document attached) which outlined the region's achievement of operational plan key strategies, plans to meet challenges, strategies to address overcrowding, working conditions and the safety and security of inmates.

Situation at Pollsmoor Prison
Mr N Mketshane, Area Manager of Pollsmoor Correctional Centre, briefed Members on the incident that took place at the prison over the weekend, as had been reported in the media. On Sunday 15 August 2004, conflict broke out between prison gangs, including the "28's". One of the cleaners, who was the former gang leader of the 28s, worked very closely with the unit manager and provided information on potentially dangerous situations. The reality was that once a gang member began to leave his activities within the gang, he was viewed as a danger to his own gang members. In the Western Cape, civilian gangs worked very closely with prison gangs, which created an extremely difficult environment for prison warders as well as for the inmates that were ready to change.

On Sunday when most inmates were in church, the abovementioned cleaner was stabbed by inmates on the way to the bathroom. The warders tried to save him and identified all the culprits who were then placed in the single cells. These included the six inmates who burned themselves. They had planned to investigate the cause of the stabbing. Interactions with inmates revealed that the cleaner was one of three inmates whom the 28s had identified as sell-outs to be 'silenced'.

He believed the inmates in the cells had not planned to kill themselves, but were instead trying to draw attention away from others for whatever purpose. As none of the bodies within the prison dealing with wellbeing had been informed of other serious problems, he thought the matter was strictly gang-related and not attributable to personal or psychological issues. The inmates in question chose to torch their mattresses once the master key had been taken to the other end of the prison.

The investigation would reveal the cause of the fire. The inmates were being counselled to improve conflict resolution mechanisms. It was most regretful to lose inmates in such a way.

Mr Gxilishe added that an investigation team has now been established, made up from inspectors from the regional office. The Office of the Inspecting Judge had also been informed. It was still unclear whether they would still conduct their own investigation.

The Chair stated that it was indeed a sad situation. Overcrowding, especially at Pollsmoor prison, could cause much damage. He requested the Department to provide Members with a list of all the current awaiting trial prisoners in the country, as this was the major cause of the overcrowding. This Committee should treat this matter with due seriousness. This Committee's priority was to remove juvenile delinquents from the ranks of awaiting trial prisoners in all prisons. The Committee would not pay mere lip service to this problem.

Mr Gxilishe responded that it would be difficult to provide the exact figures.

Discussion
Mr J Selfe (DA) stated that the equal distribution of overcrowded inmates throughout different prisons would affect the case management system, and asked if cogniscence was taken on each inmate's development.

Mr Gxilishe responded that it was true that the transfer of a prisoner disrupted his/her life, including participation in the development programmes. Area Commissioners and heads of correctional centres were encouraged to take this into consideration. The plan was still in its formative stages. Inmates could not be transferred arbitrarily and a number of factors were taken into account.

Mr Selfe said the presentation indicated that less than 10% of offenders in Goodwood prison were involved in any form of development, yet it had been identified as a centre of excellence. He asked the Commissioners to explain their plans to deal with offender development as part of rehabilitation plans.

Mr N Fihla (ANC) asked whether inmates were taught technical skills that would enable them to find work once they left prison.

Mr Gxilishe replied that participation and development programmes were totally optional for inmates, but this policy was being revisited. The Constitution did allow the Department to force young people to participate in such programmes. Goodwood and Malmesbury prisons needed to be optimally utilised to ensure value for money.

Mr L Venter, Western Cape Regional Head: Development and Care, responded that the Regional Commissioner's Office was just as concerned with skills development and production workshops. The problem at Goodwood Prison was partly due to the region's restructuring process of the previous year. There were not sufficient staff properly capacitated to teach skills development. In this absence, the region relied on the Department of Labour to supply resources. The figures indicated in the presentation were so low because funds were still awaited from the Department of Labour.

The regional co-ordinators for education and training, together with the regional co-ordinator for production workshops, had been tasked to look into the low levels of skills development. Some of the reasons identified were inappropriate planning within management areas and centres, inappropriate management of staff and training space, inappropriate experience, and general incapacity. The co-ordinators' brief was to table a first report on the status of skills development and production workshops by Friday 17 September 2004. The report would also provide financial projections for the region for the next three years.

Mr S Mahote (ANC) asked whether the George facility was the only correctional centre in the Southern Cape.

Mr Gxilishe replied that the Southern Cape was a new management area with George as its headquarters. It included the other management areas in that region such as Mossel Bay, Knysna, Beaufort West and Oudtshoorn.

Mr Mahote asked the Commissioners to indicate how long the 1268 awaiting trial juveniles had been detained in Pollsmoor.

Mr Gxilishe responded that the Department would be able to specify the number of juveniles in its system, but it would not be as easy to indicate how long they had been in detention.

Mr Mahote sought clarity on the 'unnatural deaths' listed in the presentation.

Mr J Roberts, Western Cape Regional Head of Corrections, responded that an investigation was currently underway which sought to identify precisely how inmates had managed to commit suicide. It would thus be irresponsible to suggest causes of the deaths at this stage.

Mr Mahote asked when the 25 vacancies for nursing staff in the Western Cape region would be advertised.

Mr Gxilishe responded that this was a general problem that really frustrated management at an operational level. A further problem was the slowness with which the vacancies were filled by the national office. An option would be to delegate the power to fill vacancies to the regions to expedite the process. There were however funding constraints.

Mr V Petersen, Regional Commissioner for KwaZulu-Natal, added that the problem was three-fold. The restructuring had necessitated the advertising of a large number of posts that slowed down of the process. For every post advertised, the Department had received about 350 applications. For the entry-level posts the Department had received about 1.6m applications for just over 1 000 posts.

Secondly, this gave rise to a human resource capacity problem, made worse by the need to have centralised appointments because of some of the problems lower down. This was currently being resolved via the redraft that would empower regions and management areas to deal with some appointments at their levels. This process was about to be finalised. He had signed a memorandum that approved outside agencies assisting with recruitment.

The third element related to funding. The White Paper on Correctional Services had proposed quite an ambitious plan on long-term staffing. The requirements to fill the more urgent vacant posts had been discussed with National Treasury, and the issue of migrating to a 7-day establishment. The Department was thus trying to address the vacancies, but it was not an easy task.

Mr Mahote sought clarity on the causes of the Eastern Cape's problems with non-retention of professionals.

Ms Tseane replied that this matter had been addressed at national level. A proper attraction and retention strategy had to be devised. It was especially problematic amongst the pharmacist and psychologist posts.

Mr Petersen added that the Department had previously had the same salary levels and constraints as other departments. However, recently the Department of Health had identified its scarce skills and paid rural allowances. The Department was thus currently competing against its sister departments. It had been decided that they would follow the policies adopted by other departments, particularly related to psychologists and social workers. The Department of Social Development had also adjusted social workers' salaries upwards. The Department was approaching Treasury to gain additional funds through the supplementary budget to cover this, and this process would begin in September. They were struggling to hire medical doctors, so had lifted these slightly higher to ensure the 20 posts were filled.

The Chair stated that the Committee would set a timeframe for the filling of these vacancies. They could not remain vacant for such long periods because this placed strain on the officials in correctional services.

Mr S Moatshe (ANC) stated that the Eastern Cape presentation indicated that it would be taking on 88 nurses by 1 September 2004. He questioned whether this was realistic. He also requested clarity on low staff morale because the warders felt that they were treated worse than inmates.

Ms Tseane responded that this was perhaps too emotional a description of the situation. In East London, the warders' pay packages were not ideal, so were open to accepting bribes.

Mr Moatshe stated that the Committee's oversight visits revealed that youths aged 14-17 had been incarcerated for 2 or 3 years, yet the Constitution stipulated that no child should be held in custody for a long period. They need to be taken out of such detention centres.

Ms Tseane replied that most of the children were released into their parents' care. In some instances, the parents refused to accept the children and thus the Department had to keep the children for such long periods.

Mr Moatshe sought clarity on why some warders had assaulted inmates. There was also a contradiction in the presentation because it stated that 60% of the primary health care staff were trained, yet it also stated that these staff "must still be trained".

Mr Venter responded that the training did not necessarily refer to primary health care practitioners. It was meant to cater for the implications of the new Medicines Act which dealt with the dispensing of medicines, especially Section 22(3)

Mr Fihla sought clarity on progress made in the placement of the new parole board structures in the Eastern and Western Cape regions, because this process had been dragging for years.

The Chair asked the Commissioners to explain why people were not appearing regularly before the existing parole boards.

Mr Gxilishe replied that the Commissioner had explained that advertisements were placed in the paper but were not done in the correct manner and had to be withdrawn. A new advertisement would be placed that requested communities to nominate members to the parole board.

The Chair suggested that the parole board use its discretion when dealing with petty crimes, rather than keeping inmates in prison for such lengthy periods of time.

Mr Gxilishe responded that unfortunately the release policy did not make any provision for discretion. The Department would be glad to exercise that discretion if the laws granted it, but that was not the present case.

Mr Fihla stated that a pilot plea bargaining project had been conducted by the Inspecting Judge, and asked the Commissioner to explain whether this has been fully rolled out. This was an important project to deal with the overcrowding problem.

Mr Roberts replied that overcrowding was not a new problem, as was the large number of awaiting trial prisoners. One tool was Section 62(f)(71) on Saturday courts. The Department had consulted with sister departments and discovered that they were not successfully utilising such tools. They had informed the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development that they would take the plea-bargaining option to management areas. It would be taken down to grass roots to those officials who interacted with inmates.

The Department had set itself targets so that it could monitor its progress at the end of each month. He believed that by their next meeting, the plea bargaining project would have been rolled out throughout the Western Cape.

Mr S Swart (ACDP) reported that very effective pre-trial services existed in Port Elizabeth, such as Saturday courts at St Albans Prison. He asked the Commissioner to what degree this was rolled out in other provinces.

Ms Tseane replied that a problem to date had been the availability of machines, which have now been procured. As soon as the platforms on which the machines would be placed were complete, the picture would be very different.

Mr Swart stated that sentenced juveniles could wait four years for reform schools to accept them, and asked whether reform schools have now been set up in the Eastern Cape. This was especially important in view of the recent decision in State versus Zuba.

Ms Tseane responded that a reform school had not yet been established. Two places of safety in Port Elizabeth were being used. Juveniles were still referred to reform schools outside the province, such as in Mpumalanga. She was engaging the Departments of Education and Social Development for assistance.

Mr Swart asked whether Department officials had been made aware of the Prevention of Corruption Act that placed an obligation on officials to report corruption.

Mr Gxilishe replied that officials had not been informed about the new Act. It was a matter of concern that whistle-blowing did not seem to be working in the Department, because staff feared victimisation.

Mr L Tolo (ANC) asked how it had been possible for 25 inmates to escape from Eastern Cape prisons, when prisons were so heavily guarded with electric fences.

Ms Tseane responded that two officials had been arrested in East London for assisting the inmates to escape. The perimeter fence at East London was still under construction and at some point, construction was halted because the construction company had insufficient funds, and tenders were re-invited. The tenders would be awarded before the end of this month and the perimeter fencing should be finished.

Ten inmates had escaped from the two Pondoland facilities when they exploited weakness in the ramp project, and removed the ceiling panel. Lack of guard towers made it easier for the inmates to escape. The region was engaged in discussions with the Department about all recently renovated prisons. It was not possible to say now whether they were being assisted, because the investigation was underway. Firearms had been used to get through the electric fence at the East London prison, but the Pondoland facilities were very small prisons with no electric fences, only razorwire.

Mr Tolo stated that the Eastern Cape presentation had indicated that two inmates had died as a result of prison violence and one due to gangsterism. He asked whether all the gangs were grouped together in one cell, and where the warders had been. This needed to be clarified so it did not appear that the Department was legitimising gangs as an institution in prisons

Ms Tseane replied that the gang-related fight had begun on the bottom floor, and while the warders were busy calming the situation, a fight had started on the top floor. The inmate was killed on the top floor in a fight between the 26s and the 28s gangs.

Mr Gxilishe added that the Department did not recognise gangs. Cellmates were thus mixed irrespective of gang affiliation, and were discouraged from gang involvement.

Mr C Burgess (ID) stated that four years ago, the Minister had undertaken to deal with the problem of overcrowding of juvenile delinquents. However, four years later, not much seemed to have changed. He also requested clarity about the warder at Malmesbury Prison who committed suicide.

Mr Gxilishe replied that this matter was still under investigation. The warder had apparently committed suicide on the morning of Monday 23 August 2004, and reports from both the Area Commissioner and the South African Police Service (SAPS) was awaited. These reports could be made available to the Committee.

Mr Burgess sought clarity on the percentage intake of newly-sentenced prisoners and new awaiting trial prisoners on a daily or monthly basis.

Ms Tseane responded that she was not able to provide the statistics at the moment, but assured Members that these statistics were provided on a daily basis and could be made available.

Mr Burgess stated that a high number of inmates wereinfected with HIV and TB. He asked whether the Department was monitoring the health of inmates when they arrived at the correctional facilities, during the course of their incarceration, or upon their release. This would sketch a picture of the origin of the infections - if they were being infected in prison the Department ,could be sued.

Mr Venter responded that the Department did screen and monitor every admission to the corrections system in all its centres on a daily basis. Particularly awaiting trial prisoners had been diagnosed HIV-positive, but they discontinued their programme of treatment after release. When they were readmitted, they would then have to begin the entire programme from scratch, which wasted time and resources.

Mr Gxilishe added that it was very difficult to tell whether people contracted HIV inside or outside prisons. The Department did provide condoms, and programmes had been set up to encourage raped inmates to come forward for counselling. Quite a number of interventions had been made.

The Chair requested that the Department inform Members whether the statistics contained in the presentations referred to HIV or AIDS status.

Mr Venter replied that all the figures provided indicated those inmates who tested HIV-positive. Over the six month period, they had experienced 20 AIDS-related deaths, which meant that approximately four people were terminally ill each month.

Mr Molefe (ANC) urged the Department to consider gender equity issues when filling the job vacancies.

Mr Gxilishe responded that the Department was historically male-dominated but, as in all other government departments, it was making strides in terms of gender equity representation. The Western Cape had made significant strides but was unfortunately unable to achieve the target it had set itself in 1999. It was hoped that the change in the Department's strategic direction would allow this objective to be realised over the next 2-3 years.

Mr Molefe asked the Department to explain its programmes aimed at discouraging gangsterism within prisons.

Mr Gxilishe replied that the Department did not have a programme that targeted gangs per se because the Department did not recognise gangs. All the Department's programme on rehabilitation targeted all inmates.

Mr Molefe asked whether the Department had plans to guard against recidivism, and whether mechanisms were in place to ensure offenders were properly rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.

Mr Gxilishe responded that it was very difficult to monitor rehabilitation. The majority of current inmates had been in prison before. They participated in rehabilitation programmes inside prison, but then returned to their criminal activities. Society still stigmatised ex-prisoners and did not receive them well.

Mr Molefe asked how the Department coped with the large number of inmates in the skills development programmes, when they lacked the necessary trained personnel to provide such courses.

Ms Tseane replied that some of the skills, especially the basic skills, were offered with the assistance of the Department of Labour. These were very short courses.

Mr Molefe stated that he did not detect any SITAs within the Department, whereas other government departments had more than one SITA. He asked the Department to indicate the current situation.

Mr Gxilishe responded that the Department's SITA was the POLSEC SITA, and the Department's human resource unit was working very closely with it to ensure that all its programmes were properly accredited. This was however an ongoing process.

The Chair thanked the Mr Gxilishe and Ms Tseane for the professionalism of their thorough presentations, which had been severely lacking on previous occasions.

Kwazulu-Natal region briefing
Mr Petersen conducted the presentation (document attached) which outlined the implementation of the region's operational plan; the extent of overcrowding; security and safety within prisons; education of offenders and production workshops; development and care interventions for offenders; health of inmates, and personnel work conditions.

Discussion
Mr Fihla asked whether plans have been made to address the alarming rate of overcrowding at the Westville prison. He then suggested that a possible solution to the problem with gangsterism could be to place inmates who did not wish to join a gang in a separate section of the prison. This was being done successfully at St Albans Prison, but they needed more space.

Mr Petersen responded that they were encouraging research on the tough issue of managing gangsterism.

Mr Fihla had suggested to the area managers that they divide the sections into youths, first-time offenders and the maximum security wing. Youth and first-time offenders could be negatively influenced by the hardened offenders, and this affected recidivism

Mr Tolo said the presentation indicated that Kwazulu-Natal lacked medical staff, whereas there were so many traditional healers who successfully treated ailments. This avenue should be considered.

Mr Petersen responded that there were large numbers of inmates that made use of traditional healers in all sorts of ways. The only problem was that the Department has not structured any form of partnership with traditional healers. The Department would be co-ordinating with the Department of Health to address this concern.

Mr Tolo stated that during a visit to prisons in the Kwazulu-Natal in 1998/1999, inmates had informed Members that warders assisted them in their escapes. He asked the Department to explain what had since happened to those warders.

Mr Moatshe stated that the Committee must now consider the inputs made by the Department and then formulate its own recommendations.

Mr Petersen responded that the Department would welcome input from the Committee. On 2 September 2004, the Kwazulu-Natal region would be launching the White Paper on Correctional Services as well as Centres of Excellence, and extended an invitation to Members.

Mr Burgess stated that it appeared that the Department spent a significant amount of time transporting inmates from the correctional centres to the courts. Perhaps the transportation function should be outsourced to the private sector.

Mr Petersen replied that staff shortages were part of the problem, and how the Department dealt with non-core functions should be reconsidered. These resources could be released for the rehabilitation work that needed to be done.

Mr Molefe was aware that other departments had decided not to employ past offenders, and asked the Department to explain the measures it had taken to communicate with other departments on this matter. If this was not remedied, the Department could not truthfully say it had discharged its duty to fully rehabilitate offenders.

Mr Petersen responded that a multi-pronged strategy was needed to address this problem. His own view was that more people should not enter the corrections system in the first place. The South African Law Commission (SALC) was grappling with the issue of expungement of criminal records so that those who have served their term, could be given a second opportunity. A third aspect was that, given the unemployment statistics and the fact that many South Africans were already unemployed, there was little hope of ex-offenders competing in the job market. The Department was working closely with organisations such as NICRO and others to promote entrepreneurship among ex-offenders. The Department should set an example in this regard, and the Minister had lead the way by employing an ex-offender in his own office.

The Chair concluded that the problems of overcrowding and shortage of staff were most important, and severely impacted on warder morale. Vacancies had to be filled and the Committee would set deadlines. All sentenced youth would be compelled to attend educational programmes in prison. He encouraged Members to actively interact with the Department as well as adopt a hands-on approach in the community. The Committee and the Department had to work together.

The meeting was adjourned.