Prison system 'dehumanises' inmates
August 30, 2004 Edition 1
Norman Joseph
The Department of Correctional Services is not adequately addressing the issue of rehabilitation programmes, and prisoners come out of prison dehumanised by the prison system, brutalised by gangs and institutionalised by the programmes.
These are some of the comments made in The Prison Speaks, a book by Simon's Town author Heather Parker Lewis.
"Prisoners come out of prisons like babies ... there are no rehabilitation programmes in prisons," she writes.
"The bits and pieces of volunteer work done in prisons are not enough... There are 'no human rights' in South African prisons," Lewis said in an interview.
Lewis, 58, who visited Danish jails in September of 2001, said: "there the inmates work for themselves according to programmes".
in South African jails "there are warders who are committed, and there are warders who smuggle drugs", she said.
Lewis believed the department was like a "bureaucratic animal" and needed change, while gangs had their agendas through which they controlled prisoners.
Various prison gangs would lie in wait for new prisoners and compete to recruit them into their gangs, she said.
She describes a first offender who stole a vehicle and was jailed for six years.
"He comes out of prison with low self-esteem, and even as a drug addict. Some released prisoners come out as bitter men looking for their next victim."
In many overseas countries such first offenders would be jailed for only about six months, she said.
Lewis is working on two new books, The Number Counts and Rapes in Prisons.
Gideon Morris, director of the Western Cape Inspecting Judge of Prisons, said the available rehabilitation programmes were not nearly adequate.
"The majority of convicts choose not to take part in these programmes. But only about 40% of convicts are given the opportunity to take part in rehabilitation programmes."
He said that close to 50 000 awaiting-trial prisoners did not participate in rehabilitation and recreational programmes.
"There is a lack of programmes due to overcrowding, a shortage of prison space and too few social workers. The maximum available prison space is converted into cells," Morris said.
He said the department ran the risk of inmates escaping if, as part of the programmes, they were allowed to work in prison gardens or cleaning operations.
"Even so, the department has successfully reduced the number of escapes," he added.
However, a Correctional Services statement said: "The rehabilitation programme, in partnership with the community and through a range of development programmes, aims to provide opportunities to offenders to improve themselves and to aid their reintegration into society as productive, well-adapted and law-abiding citizens."
