The issue of child criminals has become a major source of embarrassment for the government, writes Andy Duffy
The Western Cape is poised to scrap special schools for hundreds of child criminals, despite the growing number of children in jail.
Provincial education department officials have told staff at several of the 15 reform schools and schools of industry that closure is imminent and that they should take retrenchment packages. Surviving schools are to be cut down.
A departmental plan tabled last month for the Porter Reform School, the province’s largest such institution in terms of capacity, would see staff cut from 144 to less than 30.
The reshape plans, expected to be unveiled this month, come at a delicate time for the government – just as its attempts to transform child and youth care begin to gather pace.
The Ministry of Welfare and Population Development has been trying to shift hundreds of children out of prison into alternative care. Such facilities, however, are limited.
More than 2 600 youngsters, aged from seven to 17, were being held in prison at the end of April – up about 40% since last year. The number of awaiting-trial child prisoners – the target of the ministry’s attention – rose 10% to 1 309 in the first four months of this year.
The provincial education department declines to be drawn on its plans. Chief director in the department’s special directorate, Frans Booyse, says cuts “will depend on the need for residential schools for children at risk … a drop in the numbers at a school will have an effect on the staff establishment”.
The numbers held in the schools have fallen by 30% in the past six months, to 1 550. Porter has just 100 children in its care, less than one-quarter of its capacity.
The interministerial committee leading the initiative to reform child and youth care says some of the schools must go, and the others must reshape. Committee representative Leslie du Toit says just three of the schools are up to standard on facilities and training – an argument backed by independent observers.
The interministerial committee has effectively halted the transfer of children to most of the schools. Child offenders instead are being sent to alternative care facilities, back to their families, or to jail.
“There are very solid reasons why certain schools aren’t being used,” Du Toit says. “However grim Pollsmoor [prison] is, we’re not about to take children out and put them there [in the schools].”
Few of the schools’ staff will comment openly because they fear disciplinary action. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the National Education and Health Workers Union have already clashed with Booyse’s officials. The unions’ support among the staff is also weak.
But some staff say the province has starved schools of the funds needed to upgrade. They believe the province is more interested in saving money than providing adequate care.
The province last year spent nearly R90-million on the schools. Several of the schools are situated on prime land.
The unions have approached the parties in the interministerial committee – the departments of correctional services, education, health, justice and welfare – to raise their concerns, so far with little success.
The issue of child prisoners has become a major source of embarrassment to the government, given the importance it attaches to the Constitution and to human rights.
Child prisoners are routinely raped, kept with hardened adult criminals and, particularly in the Western Cape, drafted into gangs.
Correctional services figures show that the number of sentenced and unsentenced children between the ages of seven and 18 held in prison tripled to 2 500 between December 1995 and December 1997.
Minister of Justice Dullah Omar said this week that sweeping legislative measures are planned to keep children out of prison. Few alternative facilities are currently available, however.
The Ministry of Welfare and Population Development took over responsibility for awaiting-trial prisoners from correctional services last month. But its attempts to transfer children into new, secure care facilities have been hampered, largely due to the provinces’ failure to build them.
The Western Cape welfare department has so far shifted 50 of the 190 awaiting- trial children in Pollsmoor to established places of safety. Its new facilities, with room for another 80 children, will only be completed later this year.
Du Toit says every province should have a secure care facility by the end of this year. The role the provinces’ special schools will play in the new system is unclear.
Reform schools such as Porter house sentenced serious offenders who have committed crimes such as murder and rape. They represent nearly two-thirds of such schools in South Africa, and were established and funded along racial grounds. Young offenders were sent to the schools from across the country – a practice now also halted.
A report by the interministerial committee two years ago found most of the schools were understaffed and underskilled. In some cases, children’s basic human rights were violated.
Du Toit says few of the schools have taken any steps to improve since the report was published.
“We’re not going to have children transferred to them because children in these facilities are already at risk,” she adds.
The province recently allocated 100 new places for awaiting-trial children, but provincial officials say negotiations with the education department centre on using just one of the 15 special schools.
The interministerial committee report also found that most children in the special schools were being held for too long. This prompted a committee initiative dubbed Project Go six months ago to unblock the system.
A collapse in communications late last year led the schools to release about 800 of the children – apparently because the province told them to free up space for awaiting-trial prisoners. Many of those released have since been jailed.