One in three prisoners in SA are awaiting-trial detainees, and, if "low-risk" they could be electronically tagged and released.
|||Cape Town - One in three prisoners in South Africa are awaiting-trial detainees, and, if “low-risk”, they should be electronically tagged and released to decrease overcrowding in prisons, the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro) said on Thursday.
According to the latest government statistics, there are 152 000 prisoners in South Africa. About 45 000 - or 30 percent - are awaiting-trial detainees.
Nicro, a non-governmental organisation that helps prisoners, was presenting its new Remand Revolution System to correctional services and judicial inspectorate officials at Pollsmoor prison. The system tracks people with an ankle bracelet. Nicro said the system, which has been successfully field-tested, will be able to track the movements of awaiting-trial prisoners or parolees by using cellphone and satellite technology.
Awaiting-trail prisoners have either been denied bail, or have been kept in prison because they couldn’t pay bail. Nicro said on Thursday the initiative could apply to prisoners who have been given bail, but could not afford to pay.
“In our view, a large number of people currently awaiting trial can be classed as low-risk offenders,” said Soraya Solomon, Nicro’s chief executive officer. “(They) would be better served in a supportive, community-based rehabilitation programme rather than the prison system.”
Nicro’s Glen Jordan, who helped develop the initiative, said in addition to tracking movements, it would offer detainees group therapy and help enrol them in skills development programmes.
The initiative received praise from Correctional Services officials on Thursday. “Our debate shouldn’t be whether it will happen or not, but how do we make it happen faster,” said Delekile Klaas, the Western Cape Commissioner for the Department of Correctional Services.
He said overcrowding in prisons made one of the department’s main tasks - prisoner rehabilitation - more difficult. Security personnel struggled to control the large numbers of prisoners in the system, he added, leaving little time for rehabilitation efforts.
“If we don’t change the offenders’ behaviour… (prisons) will be universities of crime,” he added.
If the number of awaiting-trial prisoners decreased due to electronic tagging, it would be easier for prison staff to devote more time to rehabilitating sentenced prisoners, said Klaas.
He added the initiative could also be extended to prisoners who had been sentenced to less than three months of prison. “We must now sell (the initiative) to the judges and the magistrates,” added Klaas.
Judge Vuka Tshabalala, chief inspecting judge in the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, said existing legislation allowed awaiting-trial detainees to be released under the supervision of a probation official.
But he noted that magistrates were reluctant to release suspects on probation.
He said Nicro would have to convince them that the “requirements for proper monitoring” were water-tight.
Jordan said he hoped to start an official pilot project with a handful of prisoners, preferably from a Western Cape prison, in the coming months.
jan.cronje@inl.co.za
Cape Times