Activist calls for review of prison rehabilitation programme

Prisoners’ rights activist, Miles Bhudu, says it’s time for South African lawmakers to go back to the drawing board when it comes to the implementation of rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for former inmates.

Bhudu says Mzansi has it to the T only in theory as the country has failed, since the dawn of democracy, to ensure that ex-offenders don’t fall back to their old ways.

According to him, rehabilitation starts where the offender comes from and most of the time, communities are never prepared to welcome them back.

He is calling for public awareness programmes which will help distigmatise ex-offenders.

He believes that education and training in prison is not enough to ensure that former inmates operate effectively in a new set of social and economic circumstances after release.

The president of the SA Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights says this is not the first time he calls for this to be prioritised.

The conversation with the Prisoners’ rights activist comes hot on the heels of the court appearance of 45-year-old Siphosoxolo Myekethe, who is accused of killing 18 people and injuring five others in Ngobozana Village, near the Eastern Cape town of Lusikisiki, last month.

Myekethe is an ex-convict and appeared in court for the fresh allegations against him and was denied bail.

He is facing 18 counts of murder and one of being in possession of an unlicensed firearm.

The matter was postponed to next month, with Ngobozana community members urging the state to keep him behind bars.

He was released on parole 21 years ago after serving a life imprisonment sentence for murder and armed robbery.

Outside court, one of those who escaped death during his alleged killing spree, slammed the country’s justice system – saying it’s too lenient on ex-cons.

While the motive for his alleged recent murders remains unknown, a recent report by criminologist, Casper Lotter, which probed factors that contribute to parolees reoffending, found that nine out of 10 ex-offenders re-commit crime in South Africa. Meaning that Mzansi has one of the highest re-offending rates in the world.

According to the report, some of the factors that contribute to this is the state’s inability to clear up areas of conflict in society, such as unemployment and poverty, coupled with the harsh stigmatising and shaming culture within communities, which also results in the parolee being ostracised.

Earlier this year, the former Justice and Correctional Service Minister, Ronald Lamola, revealed that out of the 16 472 inmates who were released on government’s special remission programme, 433 had re-offended as of February 29 this year.

Prisoners’ rights activist, Miles Bhudu, says another key element in this conversation is the urgent need for members of the Department of Correctional Services who respect their jobs.

Bhudu also says the lack of jobs also needs to be addressed with speed as poverty is one of the factors that contribute to people turning to crime.