Structure of the Vote

The 2005 Vote, with measurable objectives, is divided as follows:

Administration: No stated measurable objective.

Security: Prevent incarcerated persons from participating in criminal activities and escapes, by providing an environment that ensures the safety of all persons under the Department’s care as well as the safety of the public.

Corrections: Address the specific rehabilitation needs of all persons who have been sentenced to community correctional supervision or remanded in a correctional centre or paroled, through regular assessment and the provision of needs-based correctional programmes that contribute to a reduction in the recidivism (re-offending) rate.

Care: Ensure the personal well-being of incarcerated persons by providing various needs-based services, aligned with internationally accepted conventions.

Development: Develop employable and productive citizens, through providing incarcerated offenders with needs-based educational, skills and other development related programmes in order to facilitate social reintegration back into communities.

After-Care: Facilitate the social acceptance and effective reintegration of offenders, to assist them to adhere to correctional and parole supervision conditions.

Facilities: Support the Department in its core functions of security and corrections development and care, by providing well-maintained facilities in line with internationally accepted standards.

Broad Expenditure Trends

The following table illustrates that the budget for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) for 2005/06 has increased by 9% in nominal terms and by 4.68% in real terms in comparison to 2004/05.

Additional allocations of R200 million for 2005/06, R333 million for 2006/07 and R866 million for 2007/08 are made available to the DCS for:

The appointment of approximately 7 000 additional personnel.

Implementation of aspects of the White Paper on Corrections.

Additional infrastructure requirements, including the start up and operational costs of the four new correctional centres in 2006/07 which will increase bed spaces by 12 000 by the end of March 2007.

Implementation of a 7-day working week to be phased in by 2007/08.

Meet the costs of providing three meals a day to offenders.

The allocation per programme shows a decrease for the Administration programme of 8%. All other programmes have received an increase. The highest increase is to the Security programme that received an increase of 19% in comparison to 2004/05. The Care and After-Care programmes also received significant increases in comparison to the previous year’s allocation.

This programme decreased by 8% in comparison to 2004/05. The main reason for the decrease is due to the fact that the medical aid scheme is now contributory, which was previously wholly subsidised by the Department.

Programme 2: Security

This programme gets the most substantial increase of all programmes in 2005/06. This 19% increase is due to:

An increase in the projected number of offenders incarcerated in prisons for 2005/06 in comparison to the previous year.

The appointment of more personnel to implement the 7-day working week and phase out the current overtime system. The number of personnel in this programme will increase from 19 090 in 2004/05 to 21 167 in 2005/06.

In 2007/08 an additional allocation of R255 million has been allocated to DCS to hire additional personnel for transition to the 7-day week.

Programme 3: Corrections

The Corrections programme received a slight increase in allocation for 2005/06. Additional amounts set out in the 2005 budget are for:

Implementation of the White Paper on Corrections (including risk assessment and profiling of offenders).

Start up costs for the four new prisons are catered for in an allocation of R140 million for 2007/08.

Programme 4: Care

This programme increases by 16% for 2005/06. The main reasons for the increase are due to:

Introduction of the three meals per day for offenders to ensure compliance with the Correctional Services Act. An additional allocation of R40 million, R50 million and R70 million has been provided over the MTEF to appoint additional personnel and finance the introduction of three meals. The number of personnel in the Care programme will increase from 1 626 in 2004/05 to 2 026 in 2005/06.

Additional allocations to health care for the treatment of HIV and AIDS and health services previously provided freely by the Provincial Health Department.

Programme 5: Development

The allocation for Development increases slightly from the revised estimate for 2004/05. According to the ENE, this programme increased in earlier years to implement programmes focusing on offender development including education and training, sports and recreation, but will slow down over the MTEF.

Programme 6: After-Care

The programme increases by 12% for this financial year and by 7.2% over the medium term. The increases are to deal with the rising number of probationers and parolees, which is projected to increase from 77 900 in 2004 to 93 400 in 2007/08. The ENE states that the number of correctional officials in the After-Care programme will remain static at 1 856 for this financial year.

Programme 7: Facilities

The budget for the Facilities programme increased by a marginal 4% for this financial year.

 3. Stakeholder Concerns:

The following section highlights selected concerns raised by stakeholders.

Public Service Administration (PSA)

Key concerns of the PSA include:

Unilateral implementation of the 7-day establishment and reduction of overtime by the DCS. The implementation of the 7-day establishment should be accompanied by an improved salary dispensation for members and increased human resources to ensure security.

South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR)

Key concerns of SAPOHR include:

Inmates should not receive gratuity for work but instead should be paid a minimum wage salary which is taxed.

Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI) and National Institute for Crime and Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO)

Key concerns of CSPRI and NICRO:

The DCS budget does not reflect the paradigm shift to rehabilitation.

The prison population will continue to increase which will necessitate more staff, thus placing enormous demands on the budget. Targets should be set in terms of offender numbers and the policies and budget need to be aligned toward these targets.

The costing of the Correctional Services Act, No. 111 of 1998 should be prioritised to ensure that the department can deliver on its legislative requirements.

Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons

Key concerns of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons include:

The necessity to continuously increase the correctional services budget is directly a result of an increasing number of prisoners within the system. The problem resides mainly with the increasing number of sentenced prisoners as steps have been taken to control the ATD population.

More money should be allocated for Care and Development programmes to appoint additional teachers and psychologists rather then to the Security programme for additional security staff. More money should be allocated to the After-Care programme to improve the functioning of the community correction offices. More money should be made available for the maintenance of prison facilities.

Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU)

Key concerns of POPCRU include:

The unilateral reduction of the weekend establishment by the DCS which posed a security risk to staff and the effect of movement to a 7-day establishment on the take home pay of members. The salaries of members should be improved.

Staffing in the DCS should be increased over and above the additional 8 000 staff which will be recruited. In addition, members (including managers) should be trained with the skills necessary to ensure the proper care and rehabilitation of offenders.

DCS Head Office should be streamlined to ensure more staff on operational levels.

South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC)

Key concerns of the SACBC include:

The DCS must become more integrated with the ‘social’ cluster in order to ensure that its goal of mobilising communities to assist in reducing recidivism is achieved. Money should be allocated to additional programmes aimed not at offenders, but at ensuring that people are kept out of prison. Prevention of crime is key.

More attention needs to be given to the reduction of overcrowding both of ATDs and sentenced offenders by speeding up the criminal justice system by diverting more offenders, and by ensuring that poverty is not a barrier to release on bail or fines and making better use of correctional supervision and other alternative sentencing options.

Offenders should be kept occupied more often.

Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

Key concerns of the ISS:

The key challenge to DCS is that the number of prisoners increases at a greater rate then the cell accommodation and officials. This is especially problematic in terms of security concerns and rehabilitation. Overcrowding means that workload increases faster than capacity. Short term and long term measures need to be implemented to address this problem.

Positive steps taken by DCS to manage the budget include moving from a non-contributory to a contributory medical scheme and managing overtime by moving to a 7-day establishment. Other cost-saving initiatives should be explored such as outsourcing administration.

Mechanisms should be explored to penalise other departments for delays in their systems which negatively impact on overcrowding in DCS.

South African Council of Churches (SACC)

There is no indication in the budget on the collection of data on recidivism which will assist in measuring the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes. More money should also be allocated to After-Care programme to reduce the possibility of recidivism.

Concern around the small increase in spiritual sessions envisaged for 2005/06 and the budget for spiritual services in the MTEF.

Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)

Key concerns of the CSVR include:

The budget does not effectively address the key concern of overcrowding and is not sufficiently aligned with the requirements of the White Paper on Corrections.

The appointment of 7 000 new staff is not sufficient to reduce the staff: offender ratio in the prison sections as most staff will be used to staff the four new prisons and for implementation of the 7-day establishment. Staff appointments in entry-level positions will not have the skills or expertise to render developmental programmes or train offenders. The shortage of psychologists and social workers is noted as a key concern. Skilled staff, physical resources and space need to be made available to ensure an increase in participation of offenders in development programmes.

The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, together with the Department, should take the lead in persuading the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster to re-evaluate current legislation which impacts on overcrowding in prisons and put in place policies that would facilitate a more manageable penal system.

4. Committee Observations and Concerns and Departments responses thereto:

The following are some of the main observations and concerns of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services and the departments responses thereto:

7- day establishment

The Members of the Committee raised a number of concerns related both to the process for implementation of the 7-day establishment and the budget related to this. Members were concerned that the allocation for implementation of the 7-day establishment was more than that allocated for overtime in 2004/05 and yet the purpose of movement to a 7-day establishment was to reduce the overtime budget.

The Department reported that presentations have been made to stakeholders on the movement to the 7-day establishment since 2004. However, due to the fact that the departmental bargaining chamber only became operational on 31 March 2005, the Department has agreed to delay implementation of the 7-day establishment to allow for a period of concerted discussion and negotiations with the relevant unions. Phasing in will probably only begin from 1 May 2005.

The DCS reported that the 5 - day establishment cost the department approximately R800 million for weekend overtime payments during 2004/05. A decision has been made to phase in movement to a 7 - day establishment by 2007/08. This will be done by declaring Saturday as a working day from May 2005 and continuing to pay overtime for Sunday.

The budget for weekend overtime for 2005/06, which refers only to overtime payment for Sundays, is approximately R707 million. In addition, the costs of implementing the 7-day establishment must include the salaries of 3 057 additional entry level officials who will be recruited during 2005/06. Thus the total costs for 2005/06 will be about R980 million. According to the Department, if the DCS had retained the 5-day establishment it would have cost R1.2 billion for 2005/06.

Scarce skills and retention strategies

Members raised a number of concerns regarding the shortage of professionals such as nurses, doctors, teachers, psychologists and pharmacists within the DCS and questioned what strategies are in place to attract and retain professional staff.

The DCS reported that R20 million has been allocated to implement aspects of the scarce skills policy. This money will be used specifically to attract pharmacists and psychologists. The DCS has asked the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to identify ‘rural areas’ which will allow for the payment of rural allowances for nurses, as at present they cannot be paid with the scare skills allowance as this only covers some specialist nurses. In addition the DCS has began to identify social workers that will be eligible for a scarce skills allowance backdated to April 2004. Additional categories of professional staff which should be covered by the scarce skills policy include state accountants, auditors, employee assistance professionals and human resource development trainers. This has been prioritised and will be costed by the DCS.

Health care provisions

Members raised a number of concerns around the provision of health care including the accessing of ARTs by offenders, training of nurses in primary health care and the availability of 24-hour comprehensive health care facilities. Other problems identified included the poor attitude of sessional doctors and the fact that mentally ill people are incarcerated.

In line with a Cabinet decision of 19 November 2003, the DCS cannot distribute anti-retrovirals. Some of the reasons include the fact that DCS hospitals do not have laboratories or the relevant personnel necessary for this purpose. The DCS has a list of centres in all the regions and the DCS refers offenders who are assessed by DCS nurses to these centres for treatment.

According to the DCS the department provides a 24-hour service by ensuring that there is a nurse on standby at all time and by referring offenders to public hospitals. Offenders are never without some form of access to a health care service. In addition, DCS works with outside partners such as dentists and psychologists in the provision of services. There are problems with regard to the recruitment of professionals such as doctors to the DCS. The department has a budget to recruit 2 doctors in each region but has had too few applicants and thus cannot fill all these posts. There are problems with sessional doctors, which can only be fully addressed once these doctors fall under the ambit of the DCS rather than the Department of Health. DCS makes use of pharmacists and psychologists who are doing community service. The same cannot be done for doctors until there are permanent doctors within the DCS to supervise. The department also stated that the implementation of the Mental Health Act would pose challenges to the DCS which does not have psychiatric nurses to diagnose and manage mentally ill offenders and ATDs.

A number of professional nurses have been trained in primary health care. In addition 22 nurses have been trained in dispensing and will be registered. All nurses will be trained and the DCS has prioritised training of nurses in terms of the allocation of bursaries.

Public-private partnership (PPP) prisons

Members raised a number of concerns around PPPs, including the need to review the PPP contracts in order to ensure that they are more favourable to the department, and highlighting the possibility of using these prisons for offenders such as the youth who should be prioritised for rehabilitation.

According to the DCS, the existing PPP contracts are currently under review and once the final report is completed, negotiations with these private prisons will begin. The DCS is considering options such as utilising these facilities for youth, in line with the focus of the department on rehabilitation.

Head Office allocation

Members raised the concern that about 42% of the budget for DCS is allocated to Head Office. The DCS explained that almost 92% of this amount is allocated to the various regions and only 8% remains for sole use by Head Office.

Non-financed posts

Committee members identified the problem that too many DCS officials are in acting positions. Members required information on whether the 2005/06 budget would ensure that acting posts could be filled permanently.

The DCS stated that provision has been made in the budget to fill all financed acting posts during 2005/06. In future, however, it is projected that the staffing situation could once again be problematic as the need for staff increases. Thus in 2006/07 the total financed posts will be 37 788 and the actual need grows to almost 45 000.

Facility maintenance

The DCS has been unhappy with the management of maintenance programmes by the Department of Public Works and has requested that these functions be taken over by the DCS itself. Offenders will be used to assist on the maintenance programmes. They will be paid a gratuity, which they can take home on release.

Medical Aid

The Committee is aware of problems with the current medical aid system. To address this problem, the DCS is in the process of migrating from Medkor to the Government Employee Medical Aid Scheme (GEMS).

Implementation of Parole Boards

Members requested a progress report on implementation of the new Parole Boards.

According to the DCS, the only region that has not yet appointed chairpersons to the Parole Boards, is the Western Cape. The Minister of Correctional Services has signed off all other chairpersons in the regions. To speed up the process in the Western Cape, positions for chairpersons will be advertised on radio and other community channels. Once the Deputy Chairpersons have been identified by the Commissioner (they will be members of DCS), the boards will begin to function.

Overcrowding

The Committee raised the concern that the DCS needs to be aware that an increase in the construction of new facilities cannot by itself address the overcrowding problem.

According to the DCS, the projected inmate population for ATDs will decrease from 58 144 in 2004/05 to 47 692 in 2005/06, 46 622 in 2006/07 and 45 553 in 2007/08. In contrast, the sentenced inmate population is projected to increase from 137 063 in 2005/05 to 144 251 in 2005/06, 152 011 in 2006/07 and 159 772 in 2007/08.

The percentage overcrowding for ATDS will decrease from 98% in 2004/05 to 82% in 2007/08. The percentage of overcrowding for sentenced offenders will increase from 54% in 2004/05 to 58% in 2007/08.

Mechanisms to reduce overcrowding include the establishment of new correctional centres. Four new centres are scheduled for completion in 2007/08 in Leeukop, Klerksdorp, Nigel and Kimberley which will provide an additional 12 000 bed spaces. An additional 4 prisons will be constructed from April 2006/07 in Port Shepstone, Polokwane, East London and Allandale. The DCS has allocated R390, 350 million in the 2005/06 budget for the construction of new facilities. The allocation for 2006/07 rises to R538, 284 million and in 2007/08 to R625, 309 million.

Communication with DCS staff

The Committee highlighted the concern that there is inadequate communication between management at various levels and staff on the ground within DCS particularly around key policies and strategies.

The DCS reported that this has been identified as a major weakness and that the DCS will put effort into resolving this problem. This problem can be attributed to a lack of management skills and the reluctance of management to call proper meetings to discuss issues, as well as the fact that correctional officials on the ground do not want to read circulars and information distributed in written form. Recent improvements in the relationship between the DCS and the unions may lead to improvements in this regard.

5. Recommendations:

Administration Programme

The Portfolio Committee supports the allocation to the Administration Programme. The Committee supports the movement to a contributory medical aid scheme as well as the decision to change from the current Medkor scheme to the GEMS. However, the Committee also recommends that additional steps are taken to improve the salaries of correctional officials, especially in the light of movement to a 7-day establishment and the reduction of overtime. The Committee urges the department to ensure that the large number of acting posts within the department are filled as a matter of priority.

Security Programme

The Committee supports the increase in the Security programme allocation. The Committee welcomes the movement to a 7-day establishment within DCS but recommends that it is implemented with consideration to the needs and concerns of DCS staff. The Committee particularly welcomes the recruitment of an additional approximately 7 000 staff over the next three years to fund the 7-day establishment.

Corrections Programme

The Committee supports the slight increase in the Corrections programme allocation. However, the allocation to this programme will need to increase in subsequent years to ensure the proper assessment and profiling of all offenders and to ensure that sufficient social workers and other professional staff are recruited and retained to perform these functions.

Care Programme

The Committee supports the increased allocation to the Care programme but is concerned that this allocation may not be sufficient to cover all the challenges faced in this programme. These include ensuring the provision of three meals a day for offenders, in line with the requirements of the Act and ensuring the provision of adequate health services to offenders. The shortage of nurses, social workers, doctors, psychologists and doctors within the DCS remains of concern to the Committee. The Committee welcomes recent attempts made by the DCS to improve the salaries of professionals by using the scarce skills and rural allowances, as well as its attempt to recruit doctors.

Development Programme

The Portfolio Committee supports this allocation but recommends that more priority is given to ensure sufficient education and development programmes within prisons in order to assist in the rehabilitation of offenders and to reduce recidivism.

After Care Programme

The Portfolio Committee supports this allocation but recommends that capacitating of Community Corrections is identified as a priority by the Department in order to ensure that more offenders are sentenced to community corrections rather than imprisonment.

Facilities Programme

The Committee supports this allocation and welcomes the construction of 8 new prisons in the near future. The Committee supports the decision by the DCS to review the contracts of the existing public-private prisons and believes that these prisons may be better utilised for juvenile and minimum offenders.

6. Comments:

The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services supports the 2005/06 budget allocation for the Department of Correctional Services. The Committee will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the DCS in realising its mandate as outlined in the Correctional Services Act, No. 111 of 1998 and the White Paper on Corrections.

Report to be considered.