Major changes to the management of the awaiting-trial detention system are on the cards, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said on Tuesday.
Speaking during debate on his budget vote in the National Assembly, Balfour said this remained one of the key challenges facing the criminal-justice system.
To take the debate to a higher trajectory, Cabinet had recently assigned the correctional services department to lead an inter-cluster task team to map out a new strategy for consideration this year.
”The strategy is expected to raise proposals regarding the location of the function, dedication of appropriate resources and programmes for the effective management of these inmates, who are in terms of the Constitution regarded as innocent until proven guilty,” he said.
To demonstrate the urgency of ensuring the reduction of awaiting-trial detainees, Correctional Services commissioner Linda Mti ”has just issued” a directive to regional and area commissioners to identify alternative facilities for their incarceration in correctional centres.
This would reduce overcrowding in police cells while a long-term solution was being negotiated by the affected departments within the task team, Balfour said.
During an earlier media briefing on Tuesday, he said the number of awaiting-trial detainees was unacceptably high because of delays in the criminal-justice system, putting the correctional services department ”at the receiving end”.
The department should be responsible for sentenced prisoners only, and the police and justice department for awaiting-trial detainees. — Sapa