OPENING REMARKS BY THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, MR BMN BALFOUR. MP, TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON THE SPECIAL REMISSION OF SENTENCES PRESENTATION BY DCS 23 AUGUST 2005
Special Remission or Amnesty is an integral part of all correctional systems and systems of democratic governments worldwide - it is part of government's commitment to recognise that those sentenced to offences should benefit from the celebrations of the nation which they otherwise might not experience, with a view to buy into the positive social responsibility of the nation
.The prerogative for Special Remission is a Presidential Constitutional prerogative, and the President chose to exercise this in consultation with Cabinet, and then to task the Minister of Correctional Services to deliver on the decision.
The Cabinet Memorandum and hence a Cabinet decision instructs us to report to Cabinet after 3 months - in order to provide the time for detailed analysis of the process, the outcome and lessons learnt. As such, in a positive response to the Portfolio Committee interest on this issue, we are going to provide you with an executive summary presentation, and the detailed and analytical report will follow to both the Portfolio and Select Committees after it has served before Cabinet.
Without diminishing the oversight role of the Portfolio Committee, it is also necessary for us to take cognisance of Cabinet procedures.
In implementing the mandate of the President, I must express appreciation for the partnerships in the announcement of the Special Remission - the Portfolio Committee Chairperson, the NCCS Chairperson, the Inspecting Judge all joined the Minister and Deputy Minister at Pollsmoor Correctional Centre. Of significance is the reflection from many of the stakeholders involved in the Special Remission that contrasted this Special Remission process with the previous ones. It has indeed been a very carefully managed process, which has had the almost undivided attention of senior managers at Head Office and staff in the management Areas and correctional centres. Let me say that we expect the Portfolio Committee to be partners in management of such a project and to ensure that we collectively reflect on lessons learnt in order to better advise government on the future actioning of the President's prerogative.
Amnesty is not a simple process, and one in which government can be sure that no repeat offending will take place - we are obliged to release all offenders when their sentence has terminated. Section 2 of our Act instructs us to enforce the sentences handed down by the courts. Remission in essence takes time off the length of the sentence and thereby brings the date of the end of sentence forward. There are those who are rehabilitated by the end of their sentence and there are those who choose not to rehabilitate, or indeed have problems of such a nature that appear to be incurable -paedophiles would for example be such a case - and yet remission takes time off their sentences.
If one looks at the manner in which we staggered the release, and pre-release preparation, we can say with sincerity and conviction that DCS managed the releases as responsibly as possible. The Inspecting Judge, the NCCS in its July meeting, a range of MPs, and other government departments in all spheres have reflected their support for the manner in which this process was managed, and in many cases indicated this in contrast to the manner in which previous remission processes were managed. The countless letters from released offenders and members of the public also attest to this.
While every re-offence is one too many, the level of the recidivism - 0,24% or 157 out of 65 837 released conditionally or unconditionally, is something I believe we can be proud of. Obviously, we need to also recognise that recidivism has no cut off point in time, and some of those released may well come back into the system in the coming year.
Let me express our view on the issue of recidivism. We have consistently indicated that those who abuse the second chance that was given to them will face the consequences. We express our deep sympathy to the victims of those who failed to utilise this second chance. In particujar, we condemn unreservedly violence against women and children, and those who commit such offences will face the full wrath of the law. It should be noted though that there was an element of the public debate about recidivism that was missing - the role of the community to take responsibility for those who return into their midst, and the responsibilities of the families of both the offenders and the victims to prevent situations in which re-offending might occur. We should indicate that all of the releases have been completely within the prescripts of the Cabinet Memorandum and the Presidential Minute, which you have been given copies of for purposes of this meeting.
What we should also recognise is that recidivism is linked not only to the success or otherwise of the rehabilitation path in the correctional centres, but linked to the socio-economic circumstances and crime patterns in the communities the offenders are reintegrated into. The SAPS crime statistics indicate that the Northern Cape and Western Cape, for example, have high levels of crime - be it interpersonal crime or house breaking - linked to substance abuse, committed over weekends. We need to correlate in the final report the analysis of repeat offending and the reasons given by the offenders re-arrested with the crime trends in the communities that they went back to.
The presentation will cover the process that we followed to receive approval from the President, the preparation that we undertook for implementation of the Cabinet decision, the actual process of the releases and the outcome of the releases and some brief reflection on lessons learnt.
A number of community based organisations and NGOs have expressed their readiness to assist the department in reintegration of released offenders into society. This is actually in line with the provisions of Chapter 3 of the White Paper on Corrections which advocates societal involvement in corrections. They have played a sterling role in this regard and continue to do so. We are therefore going to rely heavily on the ability of Members of Parliament to continue to mobilise our communities for their involvement in the reconstruction of the lives of their sons and daughters.