Yes, the Department has rehabilitation programmes for offenders. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, the implementation of Correctional programmes is one of the measures that the Department has in place with the aim to facilitate rehabilitation.
Correctional Programmes are needs-based programmes that address offending behaviour. These programme are non-therapeutic in nature and focus on raising awareness, providing information as well as developing life skills.
Correctional programmes are rendered by Correctional Officials (COs) and offenders who require in-depth therapeutic intervention are referred for specialized services to social workers and psychologists.
The target group for Correctional Programmes is sentenced offenders serving sentences of longer than 24 months. The Programmes are being conducted in line with the offender’s Correctional Sentence Plan.
There are thirteen (13) endorsed Correctional Programmes, namely:
1. NEW BEGINNINGS
2. ANGER MANAGEMENT (ANGER IN ANGER OUT) – TARGETS ALL ANGER RELATED OFFENCES E.G. MURDER AND ASSAULT
3. CROSS ROADS
4. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE ORIENTATION
5. SEXUAL OFFENCES (Think Before you Act) – TARGETS SEXUAL OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR
6. SUBSTANCE ABUSE (STOP TO START) - TARGETS ALCOHOL AND DRUG RELATED OFFENCES
7. BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION PROGRAMME ON GANGSTERISM
8. ECONOMIC CRIME PROGRAMME (FRAUD RELATED) - TARGETS FRAUD AND RELATED OFFENCES
9. ECONOMIC CRIME PROGRAMME (THEFT RELATED) – TARGETS THEFT RELATED OFFENCES
10. PROGRAMME ON MURDER AND RELATED OFFENCES (CHANGING LANES) – TARGETS MURDER AND RELATED OFFENCES
11. PROGRAMME ON ROBBERY AND RELATED OFFENCES (CHANGE IS POSSIBLE) – TARGETS ROBBERY AND RELATED OFFENCES.
12. A Correctional Programme for female offenders
The programme was developed specifically for Female offenders is divided into four sub-programmes:
Sub- Programme1 of 4: General Life Skills
Sub-Programme 2 of 4: Relationships
Sub-Programme 3 of 4: Addictive Behaviour
Sub-Programme 4 of 4: Career Building
13. PRE-RELEASE
In order to addresses the specific needs of youth offenders, (4) four of the Correctional Programmes have been amended with sound effects and animations in an attempt to ensure the involvement and interest of this category of offenders.
SOCIAL WORK SERVICES
It is the programme that is aimed at assisting offenders to develop insight into their behavioral patterns in order to manage their violent and aggressive behavior.
The programme utilizes the cognitive behaviour approach which focuses on increasing offenders’ self-control over their offending behaviour.
It is aimed at targeting behavioral, psychological and emotional symptoms of drug and substance abuse as well as preventing relapses.
It is aimed at targeting behavioral, psychological and emotional symptoms of drug and substance abuse as well as preventing relapses.
Focuses on empowering youth offenders with skills resilience and attitude to beat the odds whilst inculcating habits geared towards exploitation of all available self-development opportunities
It is aimed at empowering young offenders to make informed decision by developing their interpersonal skills.
It is aimed at empowering elderly offenders to recognize the skills and wisdom that they have and encourage them to impart such wisdom to the coming generations and help prepare them for successful reintegration into society
The programme intends to improve, strengthen and maintain family relationships.
The programme intends to improve parental relationship skills between offenders and their children and also to equip them with various disciplinary mechanisms.
SPIRITUAL CARE
The programme grants the participants opportunity and the ability to identify and solve problems that trigger anger. Participants are empowered on responsible decision making using critical and creative thinking towards the control of anger. They gain knowledge on how emotions and anger relate to one another as well as appropriate and inappropriate anger. They are also skilled on how to manage anger and enhance personal effectiveness together with self-management.
This programme aims to guide and empower participants to personal development by helping in these areas: applied basic personal values and ethics. Having Realistic Expectations, Having a check on Friends’ Influence, Meeting and Coping with Resistance, Restoring family relationships, Taking the offender back into the community, Starting afresh, Bringing the offender into a contact with a Spiritual leader.
The programme unlocks individual historical family background enhancing the participants’ basic understanding of family concepts. It informs participants about a family as a major social institution and focuses on a person’s social activities. It gives the participant an understanding of; the responsibilities that individuals have, the household financial management and daily operations. After completing this programme the participant will be able to accept and appreciate that he/she has a family and know his/her worth to that family. The participant will identify his/her roles and responsibilities in a family.
Through this programme participants gain knowledge and skills in communication, managing conflict in relationships, personal restoration, emotional stability, personal well-being, social reintegration and how to lead a fulfilling life.
This programme provides six steps to a better self. Scriptures which focus on self-image are quoted and utilised to help in understanding factors which have to do with physical self-concept, personal concept, and concept of family, friends and self-concept, religious self-concept.
Heartlines programmes help one to have a deeper understanding of the common eight values, namely, grace, forgiveness, compassion, acceptance, responsibility, perseverance, honesty and self-control. The Heartlines Values and Money programme targets both officials and inmates especially those who have committed economic offences. These programmes challenge participants to live out the values and they also prepare them for a smooth social integration process.
The programme is about preventing HIV in the Department of Correctional Services. It focuses on ten key areas which include, capacity counselling and testing, prevention of occupational exposure, health management of sexually transmitted diseases and others.
The programme is aimed at equipping the participant with; Spiritual wellness, ability to identify problems, life orientation, personal growth and development, Personal Life Toolkit, Emotions, Behaviour and Character. It helps participants to work effectively with others as members of a team, group, body and community.
The programme educates the participants on how to deal with guilt, how to forgive, acceptance of self and others, the impact of fear of rejection, the significance of commitment and determination. It also educates participants on how one can restore self-worth, relationships, trust and hope.
FORMAL EDUCATION
Formal Education offer the following programmes:
Further Education and Training (FET): Grades 10-12. All those offenders that have successfully completed the above-mentioned programme get an opportunity to pursue studies in the FET Band following a curriculum known as Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS), similar to all external schools within the education system of the country.
Higher Education and Training (HET): After completing their Grade 12 qualification, offenders are afforded an opportunity to advance their education through distant education. In this instance, they are assisted with registration at various institutions of higher learning at their own cost.
Computer Based Training: This programme is offered to promote computer based learning among youth centres and is offered in designated Computer Based Training Centres (CBT) where we offer basic Computer Literacy as well as the advanced International Computer Driver’s License (ICDL).
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Skills Development programmes are offered to offenders as per need registered in their respective Sentence Plans: Offenders who, during the assessment process indicate their need to be skilled and to further their education during their incarceration are offered the following skills programmes:
The entry requirement for placement in these programmes is Grade 9/ Standard 7 or Adult Education and Training (AET) level 4.
PRODUCTION WORKSHOPS AND AGRICULTURE
The Department has twenty-one (21) farms and one-hundred and fifteen (115) small agriculture sites, as well as nineteen (19) textile workshops, ten (10) wood and ten (10) steel workshops, nine (9) bakeries and one (1) shoe factory.
The production workshops and agricultural activities promote the transfer of skills to offenders by complementing skills development rehabilitation programmes and improving their personal and social functioning (i.e. work ethics) by providing them with skills utilization and skills development opportunities. The products generated/manufactured/produced in the process, are used for self-sufficiency and to ultimately reduce Government expenditure.
The below table illustrates on average offender labour per day at agriculture and production workshops:
Production Workshop and Agriculture |
2010/ 2011 |
2011/ 2012 |
2012/ 2013 |
2013/ 2014 |
2014/ 2015 |
2015/ 2016 |
2016/ 2017 |
2017/ 2018 |
Production Workshops |
1 693 |
1 608 |
1 515 |
1 690 |
1 690 |
1 817 |
1 765 |
1 547 |
Agriculture |
2 906 |
3 215 |
3 110 |
3 281 |
3 276 |
3 108 |
3 268 |
3 308 |
Development opportunities in Agriculture:
Item No. |
Type of Enterprise/ activities |
1. |
Vegetable production (21 farms and 115 small sites) |
2. |
Fruit production (13 farms) |
3. |
Milk production (17 farms) |
4. |
Red meat production - Beefers (19 farms) - Small stock (5 farms) |
5. |
Poultry- broilers (3 farms) and layers (7 farms) |
6. |
Abattoirs: Red meat (17 farms) and white meat (3 chicken farms) |
8. |
Piggeries (15 farms) |
Development opportunities in Production Workshops:
Item No. |
Type of Facility |
Products range |
Trades / Activities |
Wood Production (10 workshops). |
|
|
|
Steel Production (10 workshops). |
|
|
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Textile Production (19 workshops). |
|
|
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Bakeries (9 bakeries). |
|
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Shoe factory (1 shoe factory). |
|
|
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Prison Locks –manufacturing workshop |
|
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Printing workshops |
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SPORTS, RECREATION, ARTS AND CULTURE
Sport, Recreation, Arts, Culture & Library programmes and services are provisioned in such a manner that they add value to lives of participants and are central to the Rehabilitation Plan of each offender in order to assist them to re-order their lives in a positive manner, taking their social economic and cultural background into account.
The SRAC national programmes are structured and coordinated to be geared towards building and supporting self sufficiency and necessary for reducing the likelihood of offenders becoming involved in criminal activities again. This is done through partnership with Departments of Arts and Culture, Sport and Recreation, Sports Federations and NGOs e.g. Libraries: Library, Library Education Programmes.
The following are the National Projects for 2018/19 Financial Year:
Ongoing Crime Prevention Programme: Stories behind bars
Individual and group talents were discovered through a coordinated drama performance by female offenders on a story-line “Stories behind bars”. The outcome of this programme based on the partnership is to expose talent and educate communities on crime prevention, through Grahamstown Arts Festival and Pretoria State Theatre.