Chairperson, Minister Ndebele, the change of guard in the Ministry on 12 June 2012, which saw the arrival of the hon Minister Ndebele from the Department of Transport and the departure of hon Mapisa-Nqakula for the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, allows me the opportunity to say to the House that I relished the period I served as her Deputy Minister.
When I was appointed to this portfolio she assigned me specific focus areas which I continue to attend to. Minister Ndebele requested me to continue focusing on the same areas which I had been focusing on during the previous years.
The three main streams of the core business of the department are vested in the budget programmes: remand detention; incarceration and corrections; and social reintegration. My main focus areas are remand detention and social reintegration.
Hon members, I am pleased to share with you the considerable progress that the department has made in terms of remand detention. The Remand Detention Branch was established on 1 April 2012, and the branch head was subsequently appointed on 1 June 2012. She is Ms Britta Rotmann.
The vacancies in the branch structure at national level were filled and a draft Regional and Management Area Organisational Structure was developed and submitted for approval. We are hoping to fill positions at these levels very soon.
One of the first and key responsibilities of this new branch was to develop a White Paper on Remand Detention that is aligned to correctional services legislation and specifically to the Correctional Matters Amendment Act. This was done.
We developed the White Paper in consultation with our key role-players in government, namely the SA Police Service, the Department of Social Development, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, as well as the relevant Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster structures such as the Management of Awaiting Trial Detainee Task Team, Criminal Justice Review Committee, National Integrated Court and Case-flow Management Task Team and the National Development Committee of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster.
Several other key stakeholders and interest groups were also consulted on the White Paper. Amendments were effected after each phase of consultations. The document has now been submitted to the Correctional Services National Development Committee for further consultation processes with the directors-general's committee, Minister's committee; Cabinet committee and eventually, Parliament.
The department works closely with its partners in the Justice Crime Prevention and Security cluster and enjoys excellent support from them. Caseflow Management meetings, Criminal Justice Review meetings as well as Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster. Development Committee meetings are attended and the refinement of the Remand Detention System features prominently on the agendas.
The protocols on section 49(g): Maximum incarceration periods for remand detainees; and section 49(e): Referral of terminally ill remand or severely incapacitated remand detainees to court, were endorsed and approved by the relevant Justice Crime Prevention and Security cluster of Directors-General of the Department of Correctional Services, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, National Prosecuting Authority and SA Police Service at a meeting held on 03 July 2012.
The protocols were further unpacked into operational policies and the relevant forms required for implementation were developed. Standardised presentations were also developed and circulated to the National Integrated Court and Case-flow Management Secretariat for further distribution to all provincial and local case-flow structures that are chaired by the judiciary.
The official implementation date for the Section 49(e) protocols was 1 December 2012, and referrals are being monitored at national level in this regard. The official implementation date set for the Section 49(g) protocols is 1 July 2013, and the preparatory processes for promulgation are in place.
Information technology solutions for implementation and accurate data- capturing were developed in 2012, and implemented on 1 April 2013. The solution will assist in determining which remand detainees qualify for referral to court at certain intervals, in line with the provisions ofsection 49(g).
The first three months, April to June 2013, is the pilot phase during which testing of the accuracy of information is done, as well as referral of cases, which would constitute backlog cases once the section is fully implemented. A strategy in this regard was developed with key strategic partners: the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development; the National Prosecution Authority; Legal Aid SA and the judiciary.
A tool for calculating the length of detention was also developed and implemented on 1 April 2013, with a three-month testing period. In addition, a monitoring tool was developed for completion by all regions that will make it easier for the calculation of a national average length of detention of a detainee.
The department's inability to accurately determine the security risks that individual remand detainees pose has long been an Achilles' heel for the managers of remand detention facilities.
A security-risk classification system for remand detainees has been developed in conjunction with SAPS during the period 2011 to 2012. A testing phase of the system and tools started on 1 December 2012 and will continue during the 2013-14 financial year. Once the system's effectiveness and reliability are guaranteed, it will be rolled out to all remand detention facilities.
Twenty-six dedicated remand detention facilities were established across the country, and a further 109 centres have been authorised to establish remand detention sections with effect from 1 March 2012. The department is currently looking at disaggregating the number of bed spaces made available for remand detainees versus sentenced offenders in order to have split overcrowding figures in future that will assist us to plan much better.
Twenty-two video arraignment courts in correctional centres serving 47 magistrate courtrooms have been established although the site at Mthatha is still being refurbished under the management of the Department of Public Works. Challenges relating to the connectivity of lines, both Telkom and the Integrated Services Digital Network, ISDN, as well as theft of equipment have prevented the system from functioning optimally.
With regard to remand detention uniforms, bright yellow uniforms are being manufactured by offenders in the department's textile workshops. Thus far, 8 400 one-piece overalls, 11 307 shirts and 6 049 pairs of trousers have been manufactured using 50% of the capacity of our workshops, so we are putting inmates to labour. The rest of the capacity is utilised to manufacture uniforms for sentenced offenders. Production will carry on through the 2013-14 financial year.
According to projections, all remand detainees will begin wearing uniforms during the second half of 2014. This will contribute to better security management in remand detention facilities and improve hygiene issues.
Although we do not want to accommodate children in remand detention there are unfortunately cases where a court has no alternative but to refer children for remand detention to our centres. In this regard, the department works in close collaboration with the Department of Justice to ensure that we adhere to the stipulations of the Child Justice Act.
In line with section 30(4) of the Child Justice Act, children appear every 14 days before the presiding officer to allow reconsideration of their detention orders.
I am pleased to report that the total number of children in remand detention has decreased considerably over the past three years. It decreased from 305 children at the end of March 2011, to 218 as of 31 March 2012, and there was a further reduction to only 135 on 31 March 2013.
The Department of Correctional Services adopted a cluster approach to developing a framework for measuring repeat offending. As the hon members may be aware, we do not have reliable figures on repeat offending, which is a crucial performance indicator to determine the success of rehabilitation programmes and correctional interventions.
A cluster committee has completed the framework and there have been consultations about it with various cluster committees. We believe this will be implemented as soon as it is officially approved.
The R22,8 million allocation to the Department of Correctional Services by Cabinet from the Criminal Asset Recovery Committee Fund for the installation of an audiovisual system in the parole boards' offices will come to fruition soon. The final bid evaluation documents and recommendations were submitted to the procurement division for submission to the Correctional Services National Bid Adjudication Committee.
The committee met during May 2013 to consider recommendations of the Correctional Services Bid Evaluation Committee. The final awarding of this tender is expected to happen by the end of May 2013. Once the system is installed, it will give victims access to any of the 52 parole boards across the country to make presentations without having to travel.
One should mention in this regard that people who qualify for parole should have first served minimum sentences under our law; second, undergone rehabilitative programmes within our facilities; and lastly, behaved according to the rules. So there is an objective standard which is applied to adjudicate over the applicant for parole. The last issue is that parole also involves participation by the victims. [Interjections.] [Laughter.] I'd rather give you a smile.
In 2007 the department developed the Policy on Restorative Interventions. This included the Victim-Offender Mediation Model, which outlines the process of identifying offenders who are genuinely ready to take part in victim-offender mediation. In addition, the department signed a memorandum of understanding with the Foundation of Victims of Crime to assist with tracing victims of crimes for their possible participation during parole placement whenever they are willing to do so.
The parole system that is used in the country is based on international best practice. It allows for independent decision-making by correctional supervision and parole boards and it allows for the participation of victims as well as other role-players such as representatives of the SAPS.
The average number of offenders on parole has grown from 44 941 in 2010 to 2011, to 46 259 in 2012 to 2013. The average number of offenders subjected to correctional supervision, however, has decreased from 22 458 to 17 183 in the past three years.
During the 2012-13 financial year, 78% of all offenders placed on parole had undergone prerelease programmes. Of those placed on parole during the period 2012 to 2013 ... [Interjections.]