South Africa and the United Kingdom have agreed to a joint prison-official training programme, the Ministry of Correctional Services said on Wednesday.
Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour is in London on a four-day visit to prisons, said the minister’s spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni in a statement.
On Tuesday, Balfour met the UK Under Secretary for Criminal Justice and Offender Management, Gerry Sutcliffe.
”The climax of the meeting was the common agreement on the need to establish a joint training-exchange programme, which will see correctional officials from both countries learning best practices, in terms of benefiting from training modules and curricula applied in the training colleges in the two countries,” said Kebeni.
The visit, which started on Monday, is to enable Balfour to learn about UK government strategies to strengthen the criminal-justice system and the capacity of correctional officials, and to reduce overcrowding and number of juveniles in jail.
Balfour’s trip included visits to Wandsworth Prison in London, the UK’s biggest prison with 1 500 offenders, and the Feltham Juvenile Prison, said Kebeni.
He met the deputy governors of both prisons and discussed ”overcrowding, gangsterism in prisons, offender-risk management and offender privileges, as well as parole and probation management”.
Balfour said the visit ”was an eye-opener”, which would help his department strengthen its systems.
Balfour and Sutcliffe discussed the review and management of public-private prison (PPP) contracts, emphasising the importance of the state’s responsibility to oversee the PPPs and ensure value for money.
On Thursday Balfour will visit Altcourse Private Prison, which is run by the company GSL, which also manages South Africa’s Mangaung Private Prison. — Sapa