Thieves will soon be able to evade jail by simply striking a deal with their victims under the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)’s proposed restorative justice programme.
Speaking during a media briefing on Thursday, Shamila Batohi, head of programme, said the model was aimed at curbing recidivism among petty offenders.
”This approach tries to avoid sending petty offenders to jail, where they might become hardened criminals, by employing alternative therapeutic and rehabilitative measures,” she said.
The new approach allows for an offender to choose to compensate his victim, thereby avoiding imprisonment.
”The main aim here is to ensure there is sufficient punishment for the crime, rehabilitation of the offender and that the victim is somehow compensated for the effects of the crime,” said Batohi
While the proposed model would ensure crime was dealt with in a holistic manner, Batohi said it would not be applied in serious offences.
”The idea is not to go soft on crime — we are targeting petty offences. It is not meant to replace the traditional prosecution model, but rather to support it,” she said.
While she could not predict the extent to which the programme would go in tackling crime in the country, she referred to countries such as New Zealand, where a similar model had yielded positive results.
”They managed to reduce the number of petty offenders and decrease recidivism,” she said.
The Department of Justice was allocated an additional R1,5-billion in the 2007 national budget.
Batohi said part of that money would be used to roll-out the programme, which is scheduled to start in 2008. – Sapa