Spiritual care helps prisoners pick up pieces of their lives upon release
Faith a coping mechanism for inmates in jail
According to the SA Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998, the spiritual care of prisoners is a human right.
However, the perception that spirituality is a benefit enjoyed by the free, and not the perpetrator, leaves people to ask if the gavel falls hard enough on the convicted.
Should prisoners reap the blessings of spiritual fulfilment while under lock and key?
Department of correctional services director of spiritual care Menzi Makhathini believes the rehabilitation of an inmate as guided by spiritual care frames the message of hope and restoring human dignity to the offender.
“Every citizen in the country has the right to spiritual nourishment and wellbeing. Spiritual care within the framework of corrections in South Africa is a constitutional imperative and the prisoners also get to share in this,” he says.
Makhathini believes the act of punishment should not be met with judgment but rather viewed as a vehicle for redemption and life transformation. “When offenders are sent to a correctional facility, it is punishment in its own right. Offenders should be rehabilitated so that when they are reintegrated back into the community they will be lawabiding citizens.”
Inmate programmes such as prison chaplaincy and community ministry fill this spiritual gap and play the role of spiritual mentoring.
Even though the inmates have access to spiritual care, Makhathini says the harm they have caused is not overlooked and the plight of the victim is not forgotten.
“When we rehabilitate offenders we are also juxtaposing the harm that they have caused. They are sent to the corrections facility to be punished. Inmates encounter numerous psychological effects to being imprisoned. And similar to many South Africans who lean on their faith when facing difficulties, spirituality has become a coping mechanism for inmates during their period of incarceration.
“The worst punishment for an individual is when their freedom of movement is taken away. Spirituality brings relief and eases the burden during their incarceration,” he says.
Makhathini believes that society’s perspective of the prison system is distorted and often misinformed. People do not quite understand how it impacts negatively on an individual, especially those who talk about prisons as being five-star hotels.
He says reformed offenders are also met with harsh criticism and judgment upon reintegration. “The communities do not quite understand the negative impact incarceration has on an individual. People think that when a person is sentenced, they should never return to the community.
“Upon their reintegration they don’t take into account that person is reformed.”
Ultimately, it is about restoring offenders’ dignity and hope. “We believe that what we have put in place with regards to the inmates’ spiritual care whilst being incarcerated will ensure that they can pick up the pieces of their lives and become better people upon release,” Makhathini says.