POPCRU 'S PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON CORRECTIONS

Rights and privileges of inmates and the impact that this has on the staff of the Department

29th August 2006

INTRODUCTION:

Honourable Chairperson, Dennis Bloem, esteemed members of the portfolio committee on Correctional Services, Ladies and Gentlemen. We are grateful to this august body for inviting us to come and make this presentation today. It really serves as a positive sign that participatory democracy in our Institutions of government is not just a celebration, but also a realisation and is taken seriously. We are also heartened by this opportunity because it says our Parliament takes seriously the saying that says “Nothing about the people without the people”.

In the same breath, we wish to impress on this Committee not to archive the submission we are making today before looking at the issues we are raising. We have no intentions to be difficult or hard but it has to be mentioned that last year we were called upon to make a submission, which we did. Disturbingly, some of the issues we raised then form part of this submission, of cause worded differently though. The reason for this is that we have not witnessed any changes on them. We trust that this is a very important exercise and for that reason we would not have done any justice to our country if we have not come here today.

CURRENT RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF INMATES:

· Inmates are held in correctional centres, in the main after they have been sentenced. In terms of the law they are human beings who are entitled to be treated with dignity as human beings irrespective of their conviction.

· It is our view that most of the rights and privileges of inmates should be left as they are now. This is informed by the fact that we do not think that they are excessive in anyway.

· At the end of the day, the very idea of taking inmates into prison is to rehabilitate them. As a result of this our correctional system must be exemplary in making sure that inmates realise that they are treated with respect as human beings regardless of the fact that they are convicted.

· We however want to bring it to the attention of this esteemed Committee that there is great need to review the rights of a certain category of convicts. It is our view that police members have recently come under unprecedented attack by criminals. In some instances police members have lost their lives.

· While it remains true that all people are equal before the eyes of the law, we hold the view that the killing or any form of attack of police members, particularly those on duty is a complete disregard for the State. These offences not only undermine the law but even worse they have the potential to plunge our country into a state of anarchy and mayhem.

· Much as this body might not be the one that determines sentences, we wish to bring it to your attention that we are calling on the judiciary to impose mandatory sentences on people found guilty of killing police members.

· To this Committee we want to make a submission that deals with the rights and privileges of inmates accused of the aforementioned crimes.

· We wish to recommend to this Committee that inmates convicted of killing police members should not be considered for parole. This in our view will not only act as a deterrent to those convicted, but over and above, this will make the public realise that police members are valued as enforcers of the law and cannot be seen to be compromised in any way

STAFFING OF THE DEPARTMENT:

· Rehabilitation is the very reason for the existence of the Department of Correctional Services. Failure to run meaningful rehabilitation programs as a result of staff shortage is an indictment on all of us and the management of the department in particular.

· The unfortunate part of this is that too much strain is put on the personnel working in the prisons and the direct consequence of this is that in some instances relations between prison warders and inmates does not become conducive for rehabilitation to take place.

RETRAINING AND REORIENTATION OF PERSONNEL

This is a very important point to make. As a matter of fact this point was made in our presentation to this Committee last year. A 'train the trainer'

program was conducted in 1998 for prison warders to be averse when it comes to human rights issues. The department paid big sums of money for this program. As initially suggested these prison warders were going to train others on the similar subject but unfortunately this never occurred.

· We find it opportune and imperative to use this platform to call for the budget that will have resources to deal specifically with the retraining needs of personnel in the Correctional Services.

· We urge that training of correctional officers on human rights give special attention on officers trained before the year 2000.

· Failure to make allocation for and ensure implementation of the program of retraining will give rise. to a situation where correctional officers would hold a perception that inmates have more rights than them. This would be based on the fact that they would not be trained to understand the different rights and limitations of these rights.

CONCLUSION

Once again we wish to express our gratefulness for this invitation to come and make this submission. However, as we leave this Committee with the submission we have made here today, we would be watching developments beyond today around our submissions. It is our sincere hope that we shall not come back next year, at your invitation to make a presentation on the same issues simply because nothing notable has happened to the submission we are making here today.

I thank you.

PRESENTED BY: NATHI THELEDI: DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY OF POPCRU