Pretoria - The Department of Correctional Services is convinced more efforts still need to be made to support victims of crime and the affected society in the processes to successfully and peacefully reintegrate offenders back into their communities.
This was highlighted by the department, policy makers, researchers, clinical psychologists, police and scholars who gathered at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services Facility in an annual colloquium hosted by the department and Unisa.
Ex-offenders and survivors of serious crimes, including Mpho Chuma who was stabbed over 26 times on her body by her ex-boyfriend, engaged on the topic under the theme: “Towards a victim centric approach for successful social reintegration of ex-offenders.”
National Commissioner for the Department of Correctional Services, Makgothi Samuel Thobakgale, reminded the guests and stakeholders that the National Policy Guidelines for Victim Empowerment outlined that empowering victims seeks to restore the loss or damage caused by acts of crime and their consequences, and that victims of crime should be seen as one of the major role players in the criminal justice system.
Although he acknowledged a disturbing phenomenon that South Africa has one of the highest per capita inmate populations, ranking twelfth in the world and the highest in Africa, illustrating that crime continues to persist irrespective of harsher sentences issued by courts, there has been progressive work and a different take to protect the victims of crime as they are often neglected at the completion of a court trial.
“A factor that can never be disputed is that victims and survivors have unique needs as characterised by victimisation, gender, the relationship with the offender and the community.
“Although the victims are not a homogeneous group, and do not speak with one voice in identifying needs and approaches, the State cannot sit back and fold its arms, hence there has been intentionally driven efforts for victims to participate in the criminal justice system, meaningfully.
“The court process is never enough, hence Correctional Services introduced programmes such as the Victim Offender Dialogue and other engagement platforms. Nevertheless, we all agree that this is never enough. Other avenues ought to be explored where the victims of crime can be assisted even more”, said Thobakgale.
He said the quantum of services available for inmates can never be equated to the type of assistance made available to the victims of crime. The impact of victimisation is life-long and for many victims if not all, life-changing.
Thobakgale argued that if the experience of victims in the criminal justice process is to be improved, there must be better understanding of the impact of victimisation and of the need to treat victims of crime with courtesy, compassion, dignity, and sensitivity.
The department has been reviewing the parole system for some time as it seeks to factor in a victim-centred approach to calibrate the parole system.
It is believed that as inmates realise that Victim Offender Dialogue is a pathway to release on parole for them, offenders will condition themselves and be receptive to preparatory programmes. The dialogue may involve victims, but there are instances where the victims may wish to participate in the parole process but have nothing to do with the offender.
Some of the reasons behind this is that the victims have never been privy to the type of rehabilitation programmes undertaken by the offender during incarceration. As a result, a scenario of this nature does not assist social reintegration efforts. Tensions are likely to boil the moment an offender is placed on parole.
Proposed solutions include developing partnerships and collaborative arrangements with community leaders, retired professionals, traditional leaders, and ward councillors.
They are thought to be significant role players when it comes to creating and strengthening support mechanisms, not only for the victims, but also for offenders returning to their communities after a lengthy period of incarceration.
During parole processes they can also play an important role in public education, awareness campaigns on victims’ rights, and services for the victims of crime.
Professor Phumudzo Muthaphuli from the College of Law at Unisa and chairperson of the event's organising committee said it was important for the department to re-look at how it could improve the involvement of victims of crime in reintegration of the people who hurt them and their society when they committed crimes that saw them sent away.
He said these kind of engagements were important to deal with the reality that offenders may be sent to prison but when they are being released they have to he put back into society.
Pretoria News