C. SA Is Catching Up In Rat Race For Prison Population Explosion

The resultant end-state of the USA race targeting mandatory sentencing, is that it bred out of African Americans, what criminologists call ‘a prison population’.

It is both worrying and absurd, that Nigeria, with a population of 175 million, as compared to 48.8 in SA, has a prison population smaller that SA. The warning signs are already raising an alarm, that as much as the ANC-led government has been conciliatory towards MNCs and corporations, they are likely to continue this tendency and cross over to prison privatisation.

Given the already discussed problems embedded within this system, especially in a highly racialised society like SA, as seen through the eyes of the USA, which is equally racialised; the EFF government must ban all forms of prison commoditisation. According to 2013 statistics, the country had only two private prisons, one in Mangaung and the other in Limpopo. There is no guarantee that despite the 4^th Parliament Portfolio Committee findings on privatisation, and their conclusion on terminating such a project; big capital could pressurise government to the point of caving in.

THE WAY FORWARD

A GUIDE TO THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS (EFF) AFROCENTRIC, EQUITABLE, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND CORRECTIONAL SERVICES POLICY

PURPOSE

The purpose of the policy is found within the Non-Negotiable Complementary Pillar Number 13, of the EFF Founding Manifesto which states: “Transformation of the Criminal Justice and Correctional-Services System”.

Therefore the policy emphases an equitable justice system protecting the poor against abuse by the rich, accessible, representative prosecuting both ordinary citizens as well as multinational corporations (MNCs) / corporations, and protecting the poor, called Social Justice and Correctional Services System.

Regarding Correctional Services the focus is corrective / rehabilitative – including skilling or re-skilling, not punitive, with special attention to reducing repeat offending and de-criminalisation of certain categories of ex-convicts depending on the success of rehabilitation as determined by the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) of experts including social workers, criminologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, legal practitioners, designated warder, as well as social / community representatives like a community representative, a family member and a Religious Officer (where applicable).

The EFF government must strengthen state capacity, and also spearhead the training of all civil servants in matters of morality and ethics, as well as basic statutory laws. In order for civil servants not to be lured into corruption of any kind, the state will have to pay its employees equitably, making a conscious concerted effort to shy away from the notion that ‘working for government is a calling ONLY, but one can never break even and prosper as one would with the private sector’.

Herein lies the importance of nationalisation, in order to ensure that the state is not only skills capacitated, but economically too. It is only when the state is self-sufficient and reliant that it can adequately compensate its workers accordingly, as opposed to being reduced to a borrower of money from external lenders,.

The political consciousness of state security agencies, equitable remuneration and proper skilling, shall ensure their professional display and demeanor in general. The EFF government shall take caution not to repeat the mistakes of the National Party apartheid government as well as the African National Congress, where state security (and its private corporations) was and is pivotal, at the expense of citizenry security, to the point where state agencies are employed against their own people as was the case at Marikana.

In order to obtain this level of professionalism and ethical behaviour by its security agencies, the EFF state will have to re-define “security” for itself, taking into context its Manifesto and the 7 Cardinal Pillars, including the past behaviour of security agencies in the last 60 years. To this effect, the EFF government would have to be draw its lessons from the cold war era, form both east and west applications, moving away from the state security protection of the west as well as the centralised state and information protection of the east:

“The application of human security calls for an assessment of human insecurities that is people-centred, comprehensive, context-specific and preventive. Such an approach helps focus attention on current and emerging threats to the security and well-being of individuals and communities”.²⁰

Social services are by nature the most expensive of all governmental functions, yet governments exist for the provision of services to citizens.

In South Africa, more than 12 million people - one in every four of the population - receive some sort of social grant from the government… Judging by the figures neediest by far were children, abandoned, orphaned by AIDS or otherwise neglected. The second most dependent group was the aged, two-thirds of whom rely wholly or partly on state aid. Historically, employers made scant provision for the retirement years of their black employees.²⁰

The EFF can only achieve such equitability in the Social Justice and Correctional Services System if continues to champion nationalisation for economic emancipation and state capacitation in order to render non-class based social services of quality.

1. This policy applies to all justice sectors, viz. the Chief Justice, Legal Fraternity, Courts, and related institutions, viz.: The Public Protector, The South African Human Rights Commission, The Commission For Gender Equality, The Auditor General, Electoral Commission, Public Service Commission, Financial And Fiscal Commission, Pan South African Language Board, Independent Commissions Authority Of South Africa, Commission For The Promotion And Protection Of The Rights Of Cultural, Religious And Linguistic Communities.

2. It further applies to all Correctional Services personnel.

3. The policy has bearing on state security agencies in as far as their usage against the ordinary citizens by the state, to harass, maim or kill them, shall constitute a crime; which is an abuse of justice.

4. Under the EFF, South Africa would have to consider her influence on other African countries’ Justice and Correctional Services systems.

This is because MNCs / corporations have the tendency, under ‘divide and rule’, to maximise their profits in that African country, which allows them the lawless behaviour of exploitation and maximisation of profit at all costs; to the exclusion of the one which enforces rules and laws on them. An example is Kenya, which in the eighties rebuffed any notions of socialism or communism, including social democracy, but charted a down-right ruthless capitalist neo-liberal system. She was praised by the west, and generally regarded as an African model of success, because her macro-economic performance looked good: “GDP rose on average by a high 6% per year and Kenya outdid Indonesia and Malaysia right until 1980. Behind the stats is a sad picture. “[The] figures disguised a widening disparity – the rich got richer and poverty levels increased,” Martin Meredith observers in The State of Africa”.²²

The reality on the ground is that, there shall be no single African country justice if the rest of the continent continue to champion neo-liberalism and indulgence of the MNCs at the expense of their citizens, especially the poor.

POLICY PRINCIPLES

End-state Objectives

1. Equality before the law.

2. An Afrocentric Social Justice System.

3. A Just Deserts and Restorative Justice and Correctional Services System.

4. A social citizen-centred Law (vs. a state-centred one).

5. A Fair, transparent and independent justice system.

6. Community-Partnerships and Social Justice & Correctional Services System.

Broad Directional Perspectives

1. Banning of MNCs / corporations found guilty by the Economic Justice Constitutional Court from operating in South Africa, and the prosecution of their directors, as well as civil servants who collude with them in whatever way.

2. Establishing equality before the law by abolishing the bail system and allowing all accused to await trial at home, or at state places of safety, where applicable.

3. Making justice a social effort by introducing a community-centred awaiting trial system involving the police, community policing forum, the family of the accused, the state social worker or psychologist, and where applicable, a religious official.

4. Establishing state places of safety for the accused who do not have a home from which to await trial.

5. De-commoditisation of legal services by regulating it for accessibility to all.

6. Abolishing the current system of high sentencing which abuses sentencing, reducing it to deterrence; and restore the punitive concept of just deserts, where the sentence befits the crime. Involve psycho-social and criminology experts in sentencing, since they would already be involved with the accused / suspect during the period of awaiting trial. Moreover, they determine the amount of time required to rehabilitate and correct the behaviour of an individual.

6. Making justice a social function accessible to all by establishing regulating the establishment of Magistrate Courts per municipality.

7. Transforming the legal system into a true Afrocentric social function by introducing all nine African languages into the written code of the law, thereby doing away with interpreters and for the first time, enabling Africans to access the law within their context.

8. Establishing only two types of correctional facilities, the closed and the open penitentiary. The former being the starting point in the journey of any prisoner, and the latter being a graduation and natural progression halfway into the sentence, save for exceptional cases where progress is slower. Closed prisons will operate on lockdown principles, but still maintain the right to work, rehabilitation and personal development; while the open prison operates on commune-style sharing of own bedrooms and communal kitchen, living room and ablutions. Prisoners will share communes of six.

9. Prioritising rehabilitation, correctional behaviour and counselling as the fundamental programmes of correctional services, with skills development and academic training as the resultant privileges of progress in behaviour training.

10 Establishing social networks for all prisoners at the open prison stage, such networks to include private family visits, the right to work and pay, the right to support dependants, the right to self-dignity – i.e. to procure and prepare own food, pay for own accommodation (as provided by the prison) and guarantee its upkeep.

11. Establishing a pyscho-social community re-integration programme, form the open prison, from where parole is also administered.

12. Establishing separate budgets for all Chapter 9 institutions, viz. The Public Protector, The South African Human Rights Commission, The Commission For Gender Equality, The Auditor General, Electoral Commission, Public Service Commission, Financial And Fiscal Commission, Pan South African Language Board, Independent Commissions Authority Of South Africa, Commission For The Promotion And Protection Of The Rights Of Cultural, Religious And Linguistic Communities. This in line with ensuring the independence of such institutions, so that they can provide proper oversight on the executive.

13. Removing the criminal records of ALL prisoners who have been pronounced rehabilitated by the multi-disciplinary team, reinforced by the prisoner’s record during both the Closed and Open Prison period.

14. Establishing a process, run by an accountable Board, to administrate all matters related to all types of blacklisting, viz. economic, political, religious, etc.

a. No citizen shall be blacklisted unless they have appeared in front of the Board.

b. Each case in its own merit.

c. Blacklisting only for a specified period, until the resolution of the problem that led to blacklisting.

d. No blacklisting of citizens due to unemployment, incapacity to pay or any other legitimate cause.

e. No blacklisting of citizens where the business entity concerned is proven to have acted irresponsibly, by luring the individual into debt and / or conceding to loan application by the individual; despite their financial status clearly indicating an unhealthy standing.

15. Abolishing the death sentence.

16. Establishing a Small Claims Court.

17. Establishing a Police Database with a complete national citizenry profile, including finger-printing; so as to facilitate investigations and criminal identification.

18. Establishing an Awaiting Trial System of 3 months, with a maximum of 6 months, wherein the accused shall be notified in writing as to the reasons causing the delay, when the period exceeds 3 months.

19. Criminalising corporate worker-exploitation crime as well as multi-national corporations (MNCs) / private corporations crimes: establish Economic Justice Courts to adjudicate over civil matters involving both individuals and corporations, in order to acquire maximum justice for those unlawfully mistreated and exploited by corporations, as well as an Economic Justice Constitutional Court to prosecute MNCs / private corporations that fix prices and collude, evade taxes, leading to capital flight and bribe senior state officials in order to obtain a ‘license to above the law’.

2. Criminalising the usage of state agencies to victimise, harass, or kill members of the population whether privately or publicly / communally in protests, strikes or organised marches.

20. Establishing a functional and effective juvenile and sexual offences arm of the legal system.

21. Abolishing high sentencing.

22. Abolishing the bail system.

23. Abolishing court translation into African languages, by writing the law in all nine African languages and establishing court procedures in the language of choice of the accused.

24. Introducing a penal system based purely on correctional behaviour, and rehabilitation.

An Afrocentric Social Justice and Correctional Services System where the legal service is not commoditised but accessible to all, everyone is equal before the law and the penal system is rehabilitative.

To establish an equitable judicial system where awaiting trail is a choice for all through the abolition of the bail system and high sentencing, where sentencing is for just deserts limited individual crime, and where incarceration is for correctional and rehabilitative purposes only.

1. Community: Responsible for participation right from inception. As this is Afrocentric Social Justice, the community is involved from the time the accused is charged up to the time of community re-integration. Also involved through restorative justice, as the offender violates the ‘victim’ who is a community member, and by default the community as a whole.

2. Criminologists, Psychologists, social workers and religious authorities: multi-disciplinary behaviour training and character building team. Also responsible for working out the sentence in collaboration with the judge, as the sentence should encapsulate counselling time-tables and schedules determined by the collective decision of the team.

3. Police and community policing forum: multi-disciplinary team responsible for the policing functions regarding the suspect / accused; as well as criminal case. Later on, also responsible for the parole administration together with the pyscho-social multi-disciplinary team.

4. Correctional Services Officers: Responsible for the prisoners both at closed and open prison levels. They have the primary responsibility of close circuit monitoring in the correctional facilities, therefore they will enter into a strict code of conduct, and they too shall have sessions with the psycho-social multi-disciplinary team.

5. Judges are to dispense equitable judgement for all, ensuring justice for all, for the first time in South Africa since the advent of colonialism:

To protect citizens against statutory abuse.

To protect citizens against citizen abuse.

To protect the state against MNC / corporate abuse.

To protect the natural resources of the country against citizenry, statutory as well as MNC / corporate abuse and unlawful exploitation.

6. Lawyers: To uphold and articulate the law equitably, without regard for class, social standing or influence. To use the law to protect people, not people to protect the law.

7. Police & Defence: To dispense force according to the law, equitably and for the defence of people, property, and territorial integrity, not to defend the state and MNCs.

8. All the stakeholders listed above: to participate in the formulation of the new Afrocentric Social Justice Law, regulations and processes.

9. Parliament: Its role is not to protect any political party norms and policies, by rubberstamping un-thought policies or irrational reactive laws, but to analytically and critically evaluate the Justice and Correctional Services Law, taking into consideration the outcome of its application.

To achieve radical judiciary, justice and correctional services transformation, the EFF is committed to transparency, equity, equality, accountability, a capacitated state, and corruption fighting state.

The EFF is equally committed to the cause of nationalisation, for through economic freedom shall we able to shape and construct the justice system that is desirable for all our people.

IMMEDIATE PROGRAMME OF ACTION

PARLIAMENT

1. Motion to Draft Resolution: State to release all ATP upon determination of genuine unaffordability of bail. Where applicable, family members to be involved in the safety and adherence to release rules / bail conditions by the ‘accused’ during the awaiting trial period. Where required, state places of safety to be utilised for those accused who have no family support base.

2. Motion: Bill Amendment - Amend Section 60 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 51 OF 1977, by abolishing bail as a fundamental means of ensuring court attendance by accused persons, to the inclusion of house arrest or other means utilised during parole. To this effect, the accused can be made liable to report themselves to a designated police station, while also seeing a multi-disciplinary team of experts like a Legal Aid Advisor / defence, social workers, criminologists, psychologists, psychiatrists and religious officers (where applicable).

3. Motion: Bill Amendment - Putting rehabilitation of prisoners at the heart of Human Rights as espoused in the Correctional Services Amendment Act (25 of 2008).

4. Motion: Enforcement of prosecution of cooperations involved in capital flight. President to brief Parliament quarterly on the matter, because it is a state revenue resource, in a country of scarce state resources.

According to the study by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) entitled Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, Resource for Development, the total illicit financial outflows from Africa, conservatively estimated, were approximately $854 billion during the period 1970 to 2008 and may be as high as $1.8 trillion. In South Africa it is $24.9 billion.

5. Motion for Draft Resolution: The inculcation of Restorative Justice within the CJS, primarily as a tool to bring the perpetrator to remorse and repentance, thereby fighting against repeat offending and starting off the first step towards rehabilitation.

ORGANISATIONALLY

1. Million-signature campaign to remove the poor, primarily Africans, from the blacklisted compilation / data base. While at the same time holding corporations and institutions accountable for ‘harassing’ citizens through phone messages and actual phone calls, offering them easy credit even when circumstances point to their failure to repay these loans. Most citizens are offered loans even when they are unemployed.

Blacklisting without the appearance of the said citizen before a Board convened by the institution to which the citizen is a debtor, where the Legal Aid ensures the rights of that citizen, and the Board establishes genuine financial incapacity to settle the debt; should be criminalised. Should the institution concerned be found to have acted irresponsibly, by granting credit without establishing the ability of the debtor to repay, debtor should be cleared of such debt.

Blacklisting should apply only when the debt was consciously incurred.

2. A million signature campaign: Putting rehabilitation at the heart of the Human Rights premise of the Correctional Services Amendment Act (25 of 2008).

3. Media campaign, including social media, on the implementation of the National Credit Amendment Bill 0f 2013 (as amended by the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry); with specified targets on routing out all illegal loan sharks and shutting them down.

1. Hopkins, and Erfani-Ghadimi, 2013. Retrieved from: http://witsjusticeproject.files. wordpress.com/2014/05/anthology-of-the-justice-for-breakfast-roundtable-debates-2012-to-2013.pdf.

2. Ibid.

3. Smith-Spark, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/world/ africa/south-africa-prison-conditions/index. tml.

4. Weschler, and Manby, 1992 - 1993. PDF Doc.

5. Campher, 2014. P.6.

6. Ibid.

7. James, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/25/ norwegian-prison-inmates-treated-like-people.

8. Ward, K., Longaker, A.J., Williams, J., Naylor, A., Et Al. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.dropoutprevention.org/engage/incarceration-within-american-and-nordic-prisons/.

9. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

I2. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Neser, 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.crisa.org.za/downloads/vvs.pdf.

15. Ibid.

16. Pelaez, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289.

17. Sloth-Nielsen, J. (2005). Retrieved from: http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/CQ14 EHLERS.PDF.

18. The Ethics of Policy Making, 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/23181_Chapter_7.pdf.

19. SAPA, 2013. Retrieved from: http://mg.co.za/article/2013-02-11-south-africa-has-highest-prison-population-in-africa-says-ndebele.

20. Human Security Unit, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.unocha.org/humansecurity/human-security-unit/human-security-approach.

21. GCIS, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.gov.za/aboutsa/socialdev.htm.

22. Mnisi Mzolo, 2014. Retrieved from: http://voicesofafrica.co.za/kenya-turns-50-looking-back-and-beyond/.

Bibliography

1. Laura Smith-Spark, L. (2014). What's life like in a South African prison? In CNN Report. CNN.com. Updated Monday March 3, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/world/africa/south-africa-prison-conditions/index. html.

2. Hopkins, R. And Erfani-Ghadimi, N. (2013). Full prisons not just due to effective NPA. Extract From SA Star Newspaper. Full Document in Wits Justice Project. June 8, 2013 at 02:29pm. University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg. Retrieved from: http://witsjusticeproject.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/anthology-of-the-justice-for-breakfast-roundtable-debates-2012-to-2013.pdf.

3. Weschler, J. and Manby, B. Edited by Brown C. (1992-1993). Prison Conditions In South Africa. Africa Watch Prison Project. Human Rights Watch. Copyright 8 February, 1994. Library of Congress: United States of America. Catalog Card No.: 93-81326. ISBN 1-56432-126-6. PDF Doc.

4. Campher, G. (2014). South Africa’s People’s Parliament: The Justice Deferred. ISBN: 978-0620-59739-5 (Electronic Copy). Copyright @ published edition: Ubuntu Publishers 2014. Ubuntu Publishers: Cape Town.

5. James, E. (2013). The Norwegian Prison Where Inmates Are Treated Like People. In The Guardian. Monday 25, February 2013. © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/society /2013/feb/25/norwegian-prison-inmates-treated-like-people.

6. Ward, K., Longaker, A.J., Williams, J., Naylor, A., Et Al. (2013). Incarceration within American and Nordic Prisons: Comparison of National and International Policies. In: The International Journal of Research and Practice on Student Engagement. NDPC © 2013 National Dropout Prevention Center. Clemson University: SC. Retrieved from: http://www.dropoutprevention.org/engage/incarceration-within-american-and-nordic-prisons/.

7. Mnisi Mzolo, S. (2014). Kenya Turns 50: Looking Back And Beyond. In Voices of Africa: News & Politics Perspective. January 15, 2014. Retrieved from: http://voicesofafrica.co.za/kenya-turns-50-looking-back-and-beyond/.

8. Human Security Unit. (2014). Human Security Approach. United Nations Trust Fund For Human Security. Copyright © United Nations 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.unocha.org/humansecurity/human-security-unit/human-security-approach.

9. Neser, J.J. (Prof.). (2001). Mandatory Minimum Sentences In The South African Context

10. The Ethics of Policy Making. (2008). The Ethics of Criminal Justice Policy Making. In Sage Publications. Chapter 7. 7 January, 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/23181_Chapter_7.pdf.

11. Sloth-Nielsen, J. (2005). Assessing The Impact Mandatory and minimum sentences in South Africa. Criminal Justice Initiative. In: SA Crime Quarterly. No 14: December, 2005. Open Society Foundation for South Africa. University of the Western Cape: Faculty of Law. Bellville: Cape Town. Retrieved from: http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/CQ14 EHLERS.PDF.

12. Pelaez, V. (2014). The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery? Global Economy, Law and Justice. In: Global Research. March 31, 2014. Copyright © Vicky Pelaez, El Diario-La Prensa, New York and Global Research, 2014. New York: USA. Retrieved from: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289.

13. SAPA. (2013). Ndebele: SA Has Highest Prison Population In Africa. In: Mail & Guardian: National 11 Feb, 2013. Retrieved from: http://mg.co.za/article/2013-02-11-south-africa-has-highest-prison-population-in-africa-says-ndebele.

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