Hon Chair, the EFF rejects this budget primarily because of its proportionality to rehabilitation, which is a tacit agreement between the taxpayer and the policemen who arrest criminals before they are put behind bars. The lack of rehabilitation therefore continues to turn our correctional facilities into places where people become hardened and graduate to hardcore crime. They are places where the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, and tuberculosis, TB, fester, and where prisoners join gangs in order to attain protection. It is a sad day when prisoners are forced to join gangs because the state has abandoned them behind bars.
There are also cracks in the juvenile justice system. Those young people who fall through the cracks, also graduate to becoming hardcore criminals in the process.
Working conditions in Correctional Services facilities are dangerous and staff are sometimes overworked. These matters are not adequately addressed by this budget. Therefore, it would be a matter of conscience or no conscience for us to support or not to support it and, choosing conscience, we choose not to support this budget. Thank you.