CHAPTER 3: CONTEXTUALISING PRISON EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
3.4 Legislative Guidelines
3.4.1 The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
Section 29 (1) (a) of the Constitution of South Africa enshrines the fundamental right to basic education, including adult basic education (Constitution:1996). Section 29(1) (b) provides for the
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right to further education (university education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)). The Correctional Services 111 of 1998 clearly indicates that it is the responsibility of the Department of Correctional Services to ensure that socio-economic rights are entrenched and rehabilitation is undertaken. The government has an obligation to progressively, through reasonable measures, make this education available and accessible to all. This resonates with the Freedom Charter, which states that “Education shall be free, compulsory and universal for all children”; and “higher education and technical training shall be open to all by means of allowances and scholarships, awarded based on merit” (Freedom Charter, 1955: n.p). The Constitution (and Freedom Charter) do not identify further and higher education as a fundamental right in the same way that it does basic education, nor does it promise ‘free’ further and higher education.
3.4.2 The Green Paper on Corrections in South Africa: Towards a needs-based approach The Green Paper highlights the importance of offering needs focused rehabilitation services.
According to the Green Paper rehabilitation ought to be seen not only as a approach to avert crime, rather as a comprehensive miracle consolidating and empowering social obligation, social equity, active partaking in democratic exercises, empowerment with life and different skills, and adding to improve South Africa a place to live in (Draft White Paper on Corrections, 2003:26).
These key aspects were identified to establish compelling rehabilitation services (Draft White Paper on Corrections, 2003:18).
Launching formal partnerships with the community to support rehabilitation programmes and to build a common understanding;
Fighting low-level of education in prisons;
To add more training facilities for the development of skills; and
Encouraging a restorative justice approach which inspires offender obligation for mending the relationship with their families and return to the community as a better person after release.
There are various role players that are key participants in a rehabilitation process. Mkosi (2013) identifies the following:
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Psychologists;
Educators;
Religious care workers; and
Social workers.
The previously mentioned would infer that the counteractive action and administration of recidivism is the obligation of an assortment of role players in the society. In this procedure, formal and informal group structures, for example, religious centres, schools, ward committees as well as important governmental systems ought to likewise assume co-liability for decreasing recidivism.
3.4.3 The White Paper on Corrections in South Africa (2005): A needs-based approach The White Paper on Corrections in South Africa (2005) emerged from a requirement for a long- term vital arrangement and operational system that perceives correctional exercises in incarceration facilities as a comprehensive societal duty. The essentials of this White Paper are additionally obtained from the 1996 Constitution of South Africa, the Correctional Services Act 111 of 1996 and the coordinated equity framework. The White Paper consists of a needs-based approach that outlines the needs-based mediations that are particularly offset by the causal variables with the extraordinary offence profile of the individual offender. The point of profile- based restoration is to influence the wrongdoer to receive a positive and proper standards and esteem framework, elective social collaboration alternatives and to create life, social and professional abilities which will prepare the offender to work viably without coming back to wrongdoing (White Paper on Corrections, 2005). However, the main weakness of this document is the failure to address how the DCS can fight the low-levels of literacy in South African prisons.
Furthermore, the document makes no attempt to differentiate between formal education and informal education, as used for rehabilitation mechanisms.
3.4.4 The Correctional Services Act (Act 111 of 1998): pertaining to offenders
The Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 agrees with the current, internationally acceptable prison system, aligned with the framework of the 1996 Constitution (Draft White Paper on Corrections, 2003). According to Coetzee (2003) one the most vital features of this legislation is that it provides a framework for the handling, development and provision of services to improve
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the rehabilitation of offenders through formal education. Another significant aspect of the Correctional Services Act is that it is a supporting tool, which officially attempts to enable offender growth and rehabilitation.
The Constitution of South Africa is a body of important principles that governs the standard operations of the state. There is no law above the constitution, it is superior to Parliament and serves as a gauge by which all laws should be judged. The Constitution sets clear standards in respect of all arrested and detained persons, standards which are derived from the right to dignity articulated in section 10.1. The emphasis here is on the legislative guidelines in respect of the studying offender. The Correctional Services Act (111 of 1998), in Chapter 3, operationalises the regularising arrangements of the Constitution by articulating particularly nitty gritty guidelines controlling states of correction and the treatment of offenders. It is necessary for the researcher to note and have knowledge of legislative frameworks specific to the study as it helps align the standards and operational systems of correctional centres lawfully.
3.5 The Department of Correctional Services correctional education programmes