Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, all protocols observed, prison overcrowding is one of the most challenging problems faced by criminal justice systems all over the world. Overcrowding is a problem because prisons are expensive to build and costly to run. No country can afford to build its way out of its overcrowding problem, not even the wealthiest countries.
Van Ness, 2008, believes that it is possible to find a rise in government spending on education in most countries. He further states that any country adding to its prison population will have to spend more money there, and more money for prisons would mean less money for other purposes.
If you look at our Correctional Services budget for the coming financial year - which is R15,1 billion, as opposed to the R6,1 billion budgeted for basic education - as a country we need to review our priories and do things differently. As President J Z Zuma stated in the 2010 state of the nation address, all South Africans must feel safe and be secure. This can be done successfully if all efforts are co-ordinated and all departments within the criminal justice system walk together in the fight against crime.
Overcrowding is not a new phenomenon in our country. It has existed for a number of years. Therefore, we reiterate the call for the urgent establishment of a transformed, integrated, modernised, adequately resourced and well-managed criminal justice system.
As announced in the state of the nation address of 2009, overcrowding affects offenders negatively as it gives rise to poor staff morale. Offenders must be kept busy with activities and programmes during the day and prisons must only be utilised for sleeping purposes. The disjuncture in the budget towards spending on infrastructure and security rather than on programmes focused on rehabilitation, as envisaged by the White Paper on Corrections, must be addressed.
Excessively lengthy incarceration and the use of pretrial are major causes of overcrowding in our facilities. Most awaiting-trial detainees are in custody as a result of delays in the justice system, missing files, absent witnesses and unaffordable bail amounts.
By October 2009, a total of 50 675 offenders were in custody awaiting trial. Section 35(3)(d) of the South African Constitution stipulates that every accused person has the right "to have their trial begin and conclude without unreasonable delay".
I also want to take this opportunity to commend the Minister of Correctional Services for taking the initiative and signing the bail protocol, together with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Minister of Police.
However, the challenge is the implementation of this protocol, and the issue of offender tracing with regard to the physical address. However, the Minister has given an assurance that the task team which has been established will also look at this matter and finding ways of addressing it. Certainly, there is a small proportion of offenders whose crimes are so violent and whose behaviour is so uncontrollable that prison is the only feasible option.
I must indicate that everyone will benefit if selected low-risk offenders can pay their debt to society through community-based alternatives such as diversion, home confinement, community-based treatment, victim restitution, community service or probation.
Another issue which is very dear to my heart is that of children in prison. Section 28(l)(g) of the Constitution states that every child has the right "not to be detained except as a measure of last resort, in which case, in addition to the rights a child enjoys under sections 12 and 35, the child may be detained only for the shortest appropriate period of time".
Prisons were not built and designed for children. At the end of December 2009, a total of 1 341 children were behind bars in our country. Of those, 767 were sentenced for various crimes and two children under the age of l4 years were awaiting trial. They do not go to the beach in summer or receive gifts under Christmas trees. They see the sun from behind bars.
I trust that these two children have been released from our correctional facilities into the care of their parents or to secure care facilities under the Department of Social Development, whose facilities are underutilised. We hope that with the implementation of the Child Justice Act, which will come into effect on l April 2010, we will see more children in these facilities rather than in prison.
As correctly stated in the Freedom Charter of the ruling party, the real Congress of the People in Kliptown, not the fake one:
All shall be equal before the law. Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance.
I thank you. [Applause.]