A Need to Re-integrate Prisoners to the Community: A Case of Polokwane Medium B Prison, South Africa

Abstract

There seems to be a lack of communication between communities and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) when ex-offenders are re-integrated to the communities (Zondi 2012). The international approach that the South African government subscribe to, perceive rehabilitation as ensuring that imprisoned offenders are treated with care and dignity such that their re-entry to society should not be a challenge (Cilliers & Smit 2007; Singh 2008). There is still no difference between rehabilitation and incarceration in South Africa due to the correctional environment. The rate of incarceration has increased dramatically where prisons are filled to capacity with an alarming overcrowding that leads to bad environments for the offenders. Crime continues inside the prison walls and gangs are rife behind bars (Singh 2008). The available data on recidivism is an indication that the ex-offenders that are released by the DCS are not rehabilitated (Freeman 2003). However, the move by the democratically elected South African government from the Department of Prisons to the Department of Correctional Services designates that the intention was to move from mere incarceration to corrections and rehabilitation of offenders (Cheliotis 2008). But this correctional objective seems to be defeated if a corrected inmate gets back to join a family that is already dysfunctional, and hence involuntarily the corrected inmate reverts back to his/her offence. The DCS (2005) compatibly tries to address the issue of rehabilitation and re-entry of offenders to their communities including the importance of the family in the rehabilitation of offenders. Nonetheless, if offenders are returning to neighbourhoods that do not provide access to the sort of services that are important for re-integrating ex-offenders into the broader community; it stands to reason that the ex-offenders will be less likely to succeed in the post-release transition and more likely to recidivate. Consequently, the rehabilitation of an incarcerated inmate with the exclusion of the family could be an incomplete process. Hence this paper seeks to ascertain the characteristics and determinants of recidivism.