NGO launches bid to free prison watchdog
THE days of the prison watchdog being dependent on and kowtowing to the Department of Correctional Services appear to be drawing to an end.
In the final step of its bid to free the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services (JICS) from the government’s control, NGO Sonke Gender Justice has launched an application with the Constitutional Court.
Sonke wants the apex court to confirm a ruling it won in the Western Cape High Court three months ago.
In that judgment, Judge Nolwazi
Boqwana ruled that sections of the Correctional Services Act of 1998 were inconsistent with the Constitution, and therefore invalid.
Sonke had argued that the sections rendered JICS unable to perform its watchdog functions independently of the department.
A statutory body, JICS is tasked with inspecting and monitoring prisons.
This means it is positioned to investigate complaints brought by prisoners about officials of the department. About 720 complaints were received from inmates in the 2018/19 period.
But unlike Chapter Nine Organisations such as the public protector and the SA Human Rights Commission, JICS is not independent of the government.
Clare Ballard, Sonke’s attorney, said in court papers: “Over a period of a number of years, serious concerns have persistently arisen that the JICS lacks the independence to carry out its mandate properly or lawfully. The very department which controls the prisons over which the JICS has oversight controls the budget of JICS.”
Ballard pointed out that it in 2006 the Jali Commission, which probed corruption and violence in prisons, noted that “staff in the Office of the Inspecting Judge may not be challenging the department’s officials as they ought to do.’’
Retired Justice Johann van der Westhuizen is currently JICS’ inspector judge. An affidavit deposed by JICS’ chief executive Vickash Misser before Judge Boqwana lent clout to Sonke’s argument. Misser decried the fact that the department had unilaterally reduced JICS’ approved 2018/2019 budget allocation by 22%.
Opposing the application at the high court, the department maintained that the JICS “possessed the necessary structural and operational independence and legal powers to discharge its functions”.
Judge Boqwana found otherwise. The Constitutional Court will further hear the matter in March next year.