Paroles a symptom of a deeper malaise
The decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to release thousands of prisoners on parole in coming months in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus in SA’s overcrowded prisons was always going to be controversial.
The decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to release thousands of prisoners on parole in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus in SA’s overcrowded prisons was always going to be controversial. The popular sentiment in SA is that generally criminals should be locked up and the keys thrown away.
Ramaphosa took the extraordinary step on Friday, mere months after thousands of other prisoners had already had their sentences remitted.
The presidency said that a section in the Correctional Services Act had been invoked, which empowers the president to at any time authorise that any sentenced prisoner be placed under correctional supervision parole and that the decision “could relieve our correctional services facilities of just under 19,000 inmates out of a population of 155,000”.
The move was not unexpected. SA follows Iran, France and Italy, which made the same decision as a result of prison overcrowding.
While statistics show overcrowding is high in SA’s prisons — 32.58% at the start of May — the bigger prisons in the metropolitan areas are particularly badly affected. These prisons were highlighted when justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola addressed the media on Ramaphosa’s decision.
St Albans Prison in the Eastern Cape had an occupancy level of 238%, while Johannesburg Medium A Prison was at 251%.
These numbers speak for themselves. As Covid-19 infections in prisons rose — 198 confirmed cases, including inmates and officials — the decision to release prisoners seems inevitable.
The Covid-19 preventive measures were “stretched to the brink”, Lamola said. “We have managed thus far, but the spread of the virus continues. We ought to act decisively and prevent this invisible killer from rapidly multiplying in our centres.”
Lamola, together with correctional services commissioner Arthur Fraser, emphasised that those eligible for the parole process were prisoners who were convicted of so-called petty crimes. The process would not apply to inmates who were convicted of violent crimes.
However, the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach, a former senior state prosecutor and the party’s spokesperson on justice & constitutional development, criticised the move, saying the placement of prisoners on parole to relieve overcrowding may be a model that worked well in developed countries but it could not simply be transposed on to the local context without question.
“In doing so, government has shown little regard for the safety of ordinary South Africans and contributes to an already looming humanitarian crisis,” Breytenbach said.
One of the main issues she raises relates to some of the requirements for parole which an offender would have to comply with before he or she can be released.
“Many of the prisoners who stand to be released do not have families or homes to return to. Those who do may well return to a home where there is already little or no food. Finding employment, difficult enough under the best of circumstances for those with a criminal record, will be impossible in the current economy,” she said.
All of these factors, according to Breytenbach, will increase the possibility of reoffending, thereby contributing to SA’s high recidivism rate. “It also adds a high social burden on already struggling families and communities,” she said.
It is clear more immediate challenges await the government during the coming 10 weeks in which the process will have to be rolled out, while more disapproval from citizens may lie in wait as the state ponders what to do with remand detainees who were eligible to be released on parole but did not have the money to get bail.
But the main challenge is bigger than that: the system as a whole needs to be fixed. The functioning of every aspect of the criminal justice system weighs heavily on prisons if the different parts of it are dysfunctional, which has been the case for years.
Overcrowded prisons are clearly not just an issue during the Covid-19 pandemic, and releasing prisoners is akin to plugging a gaping wound with plaster when it needs surgery.