This is their written submission and request for an opportunity to give verbal evidence at the public hearing on the Green Paper on Correctional Services:

1. We believe that criminal offenders often have more in common than criminality. Many are addicted to alcohol or other chemical substances, too. It is in our view extremely important to recognize the link between addiction and criminal behaviour. In America the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) during 1999 and after the most exhaustive and penetrating analyses to date, reached the following conclusion:"For 80 percent of inmates, substance abuse and addiction has shaped their lives and criminal histories: they have been regular drug users, have a history of alcohol abuse, committed crimes under the influence of alcohol and drugs, stolen to get money to buy drugs, violated drug selling and possession laws, drove drunk, committed assaults, rapes, homicides and disorderly conduct offenses related to alcohol or drugs or some combination of the above...... Most offenders whatever their crime, have a drug or alcohol problem. Alcohol and drugs are implicated in the increased rate of arrest, conviction and imprisonment of property, violent and drug law offenders, the three major groups of inmates.... This study demonstrates that criminal recidivism is very much a function of drug and alcohol abuse."

2. We believe that a similar analysis of the South African inmate population will not differ much from the above proven link between addiction and criminal behaviour. The case for integrating drug addiction treatment approaches with the rehabilitation processes of inmates in South African prisons is therefore compelling.

3. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), also in America, reported during 1999 that:

4. Some American researchers have even shown that effective treatment programs in prisons may reduce the rate of recidivism of up to 30 percent. According to Gendreau and Goggin:

5. South Africa's own National Drug Master Plan of 1999 states on page 17 that the Department of Justice, in collaboration with other departments should aim to increase the number of offenders referred to and entering treatment programmes for substance abuse.

6. The new direction set out in the White Paper of the Department of Correctional Services, recognising the need to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders, is also a sign that the Department intends to commit more resources for the treatment of the addict-offender in prison. (See The Preamble)

7. Paragraph 10.1.2 of the White Paper confirms in addition the Department's belief that it can make a significant contribution towards the rehabilitation of offenders through the provision of, inter alia, the 'diagnoses and treatment of problems such as substance abuse.'

8. We believe that the Department should, however go one step further and recognize in it's Green Paper that it urgently needs to develop and implement a program for our prisons to address the significant impact of substance abuse on criminal behaviour.

9. The time has come for the Department to not only expand treatment approaches but also to integrate these within other rehabilitation processes provided for in our prisons. Failing to do so would mean the failure of realising the Department's vision to reduce the rate of recidivism and face the enormous challenge posed by overcrowding in our prisons.