But perhaps the greatest failing of the Department of Correctional Services is the fact that its budget is clearly and continuously not aligned with its strategic objectives. If the department wants to rehabilitate offenders and reintegrate them into the community, then it must put the right amount of resources behind rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.
At the moment, it's simply not doing so. Only 5,8% of this year's budget is devoted to rehabilitation and 4,3% to reintegration. Speaking of reintegration, the National Development Plan correctly observes that, and I quote:
The focus of reintegration is on supervision and monitoring rather than casework and support by parole and release officers of prisoners re- entering society. This has compounded the problem of lack of programmes in the prisons.
Hon Minister, we need to do better. We need smarter solutions. Firstly, since prisons are the universities of crime, we should seek to reduce the prison population by making more use of diversion programmes and community- based alternative sentences in deserving cases. Such sentences must be disagreeable, such as working in a morgue, and should simultaneously act as a deterrent and a visible demonstration of restorative justice.
Secondly, since it is virtually impossible to get a job with a criminal sentence, we should expunge the criminal records of first-time nonviolent offenders, provided that they have been model prisoners, attended and satisfactorily participated in all prescribed rehabilitative programmes and adhered to all parole conditions. This would make it more possible for ex- offenders to obtain employment.
Thirdly, we must ensure that all those who have been sent to prison work 40 hours a week in a workshop, on an agricultural project or in a similar institution, to grow their own food or to maintain their own institutions. At the moment, only a fraction of inmates actually work, despite what the Minister told us. Only after working a full day should inmates be painting or playing sport.
Fourthly, we should reintroduce credits for inmates who participate fully and successfully in rehabilitative and work programmes, to make it worthwhile to participate in those programmes.
Fifthly, acknowledged gang leaders must be transferred to C-Max facilities to disincentivise gang membership and promotion within the correctional system. The gangs are the absolute cancer of our prisons and we need to deal with them. At the moment the so-called gang-management strategy applied by the department is simply not working.