Community correction ‘needed for parolees’
THE Department of Correctional Services says community correction programmes create a conducive environment for the reintegration of parolees through supervision, monitoring and rehabilitation.
These programmes also ensure that parolees and probationers comply with the conditions of their parole.
Yesterday, the portfolio committee on justice was briefed by the department on the release of thousands of offenders. The committee also heard presentations about the romantic relationships between offenders and wardens.
When President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a state of disaster on March 15 last year, the department developed and implemented a response strategy that entailed prevention, containment, treatment and recovery.
Despite measures put in place, the department said it continued to be confronted with the glaring impossibility of maintaining social distancing in its facilities due to overcrowding.
The Chief Deputy Commissioner for Community Corrections, Anna Molepo, said that in addressing, managing and combating the spread of Covid-19 in Correctional Centres, the department recommended that selected categories of low risk sentenced offenders be placed on parole and continue to serve their sentences in the system of community corrections.
Molepo said that only 17 922 sentenced offenders qualified for the Covid-19 Special Parole Dispensation, and not 19 000 offenders as initially predicted. She told the committee that offenders who were to benefit from the Special Parole Dispensation were to be released from May 20, 2020, in controllable groups as per identified category and sentence group.
It was projected that a total of approximately 19 000 offenders who had committed non-violent crimes would benefit, but 17 922 were released. Sentenced offenders who had or would reach their minimum detention period within a period of 60 months from April 27, 2020, qualified.
“Regions were provided with the list to verify and purify. This resulted in a purified total figure of 18 544.
Other offenders who had been identified to qualify picked up further charges, hence the drop of qualifying cases to 17 922,” said Molepo.
As of April this year, 13 989 offenders had been released.