West Cape News (Cape Town)
Yugendree Naidoo
16 November 2009
Each psychologist employed by the Department of Correctional Services has over 4 300 prisoners to attend to, with the department saying there are 122 vacant posts.
This severe lack of ability to offer psychological counseling to prisoners exists despite the existence of the 2005 White Paper on Corrections in South Africa that outlines a need for psychological counseling in order to improve rehabilitation in the country's prisons which have a reported recidivism rate of around 80 percent.
The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO) regional manager Gerhard van Vuuren has expressed concern that the high recidivism rate is directly linked to the lack of psychologists.
Van Vuuren said added to the severe shortage of psychologists, awaiting trial prisoners, of which there were about 46 000 in the country, received no rehabilitation services as these were mostly reserved for sentenced inmates.
The lack of rehabilitation also meant taxpayers were responsible for the security and upkeep of inmates who never become self-reliant, and that the vast majority of convicted criminals never contributed to the economy also placed a burden on society.
South Africa's Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons director Gideon Morris said it was disturbing that tax payers have to foot the bill for feeding, clothing and housing the approximately 160 000 prisoners around the country.
Morris said the Correctional Services budget had increased from R3.5 billion in 1997 to a projected R18 billion by the 2011/2012 financial year.
He said a budget of R13 billion was allocated for the current financial year, which meant taxpayers were paying about R36 million a day to secure and care for about 114 042 sentenced prisoners and 46 074 prisoners awaiting trial in the 237 operation prisons in South Africa.
He said it the lack of psychologists to assist with rehabilitation was therefore "not acceptable" and "of grave concern".
"Psychologists impact directly in achieving an effective rehabilitation programme because not only is it driven by them, they form an integral part of the recipe."
Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative coordinator Lukas Muntingh said the need for psychological counseling for prisoners was needed to help them reorganize their lives, their self image and to deal with "the fact that their family and friends are outside while they're inside".
Muntingh said anxiety and depression was very common amongst prisoners and some of them should actually be housed in a psychiatric hospital.
In addition, he said, prisoners were not assisted when it came to picking up the pieces of their life after being released.
There were no support systems or guidance to help prevent them from once more embarking on a life of crime.
Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Hlengiwe Mkhize's spokesperson David Hlabane said the department aimed to fill the posts through offering better remuneration packages, a move which had already resulted in increasing the number of psychologists from 22 in 2008/2009 to the current 37.
Hlabane said although there were 112 psychological posts vacant, it didn't prevent the department from engaging in the rehabilitation of prisoners as psychological services were just one of many rehabilitation initiatives.
But the 2008/2009 Annual Report notes there are also serious vacancies in other areas crucial to rehabilitation, such as 134 vacancies for educationists, nine vacancies for chaplains and related professionals, and 225 vacancies for social workers and related professionals.
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