Barry Streek
About 350 NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) are rendering a variety of services and programmes to prisoners.
Both the internal and external programmes by NGOs and CBOs are being reviewed and evaluated to determine the extent to which they address the needs of prisoners, including rehabilitation.
This was disclosed by Minister of Correctional Services Ben Skosana in reply to a question tabled in the National Assembly by Pauline Cupido of the Democratic Alliance.
Skosana said his department has developed a model of intervention to evaluate the effectiveness of services rendered by these NGOs.
The model seeks to assess and analyse needs of prisoners, establish each prisoner’s profile, design individualised development plans and develop needs-based rehabilitation programmes.
“As part of transformation, the department is currently developing policies on rehabilitation of prisoners and community involvement to ensure that these programmes are responsive to the needs of the prisoners,” Skosana said.
He cited the Centre for Conflict Resolution, a Cape Town-based NGO involved in eliminating gang-related violence at Pollsmoor Prison.
Skosana said before the centre’s programme is rolled out to other prisons, its effectiveness and impact on rehabilitation must be determined a procedure applicable to all rehabilitation programmes rendered by other external service providers.
Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete told a press briefing last week that the safety and justice cluster of ministers had decided that more attention had to be given to corruption in the prisons because they had become “planning zones” for criminal activities inside and outside prisons.
Tshwete made his comment after Skosana announced that a judge had been identified to head a commission of inquiry into the prisons to look into the management of larger prisons as well as intimidation, violence and drug trafficking reported to be rampant in the country’s jails.
“We are dealing with a culture and various sub-cultures that have been there for quite a long time,” Skosana said.