Statistics by the Department of Correctional Services indicate that of the country’s provinces Kwazulu-Natal, with 957, has the highest number of juveniles incarcerated. This was followed by the Western Cape, with 810 children, and Gauteng with 719 children.
The figures were released by the Minister of Correctional Services Ben Skosana while he was speaking during the ministerial Imbizo outreach programme at the Ekuseni Youth Centre in Newcastle.
Skosana said statistics also recently released by the Inspecting judge, Hannes Fagan, indicated that 60% of prisoners were under the age of 30 years.
Skosana said the department believed that no child should be in prison. ”We must find ways and means of alternative sentencing so that young offenders do not turn out to be hardened criminals.
”That is why those who unfortunately find themselves in our custody are confined to our Youth Correctional Development Centres, such as this one. Otherwise young offenders are accommodated in sections of prisons separate from other prisoners.”
He said his department was seeking the cooperation of non-governmental organisations to assist them in providing services which met the needs of children under correction.
Skosana said the fact that 60% of prisoners are under the age of 30 years imposed a greater responsibility on everyone to ensure that ”these people who are supposed to be part of the economic engine of the country are truly rehabilitated, as their country needs them outside and not inside prison.”
The minister said the communities had to provide a solid societal foundation of sound morals as well as have the ”capacity to encourage those who have tumbled and fallen in the pathway of life to rise again.”
He said prisoners should not be regarded as outcasts, but should be subject to concerns and sympathy from the public as they are crying out for help from the very society which failed to provide them with the basic tools for survival in life.
Skosana said moral regeneration principles were the basic tenets of the Moral Regeneration Movement which was launched last year to drive the programme of the moral renewal of South Africa.
It is a partnership between all sectors of civil society and government, and draws on the various codes of conduct in different areas and serves as a moral compass.
Skosana said the government’s policy of ”restorative justice” was meant to address aspects of personal behaviour and to ensure accountability.
”It is a process aimed at bringing together the offender, the victim, families and the community in looking for ways to make things right again after an offence has been committed.” – Sapa