Ex-offenders creating opportunities for themselves

Tough Enough Project group- Worcester with Eugene Jason, Veronica Thyssen, Nomsa Gqodi and Mr Colling from the Department Correctional Services

The past year has been an active one with crime and the combating of criminal activities in South African receiving much attention from the government, civil society, media and the public sector alike.

At the beginning of June 2005 Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour announced a nationwide amnesty for prisoners jailed for petty offences, specifying that every offender who qualified for release would be required to attend a compulsory pre-release programme. NICRO was subsequently requested to assist government in preparing prisoners for release, and became the primary national non-governmental organisation to provide these services. It is heartening that NICRO’s expertise was thus acknowledged.

NICRO’s involvement with the remission process has undoubtedly cemented and facilitated a far stronger working relationship with the Department of Correctional Services. At a national level, NICRO’s lobbying and advocacy initiatives have further reinforced recognition and acknowledgement of the organisation as one of the major stakeholders and primary movers in the field.

The past year will be remembered for NICRO having gained membership of the powerful National Council of Corrections in addition to becoming a partner in a consortium of non-governmental organisations that will spearhead activities to embed and integrate restorative justice in activities related to justice and corrections.

Following the completion of an independent evaluation, the NICRO Prison Art programme emerged as an extremely positive tool in the rehabilitation of the offender, with offenders identifying it as a major key to successful life ‘outside’, although this was still greatly dependent on the support they were able to secure following release. Recommendations for improving the impact of this programme, which include promoting the true import of this initiative and its impact beyond the prison walls and the expansion of the programme to encompass year round activity in correctional facilities, culminating in the competition and an awards event, will be carefully reviewed for implementation.

The seven provinces that offer the Tough Enough Programme, a primary component of NICRO’s offender reintegration services, jointly succeeded in rendering in-prison sessions to 963 new programme participants. Experience indicates, on the basis of self-reporting, since no independent impact study has yet been undertaken, that Tough Enough participant re-offending rates have been reduced to between 0 and 20%. This is a remarkable achievement, given that the vast majority of our clients are repeat offenders or recidivists.

There is also ever-growing and far stronger anecdotal evidence and feedback from clients and their families who report that the programme is impactful and that it enables participants to reintegrate more successfully, despite the many challenges facing an offender who has been newly released from prison, with one of the greatest being the securing of employment.

In line with our intended repositioning of the organisation, we have merged the activities previously linked to the Economic Empowerment Project with the Offender Reintegration Programme. Viewed holistically, the social reintegration of former offenders cannot be accomplished without attending to matters related to income generation, job creation and job placement. Given that these two programmes pursue a similar objective, it has become efficient, and imperative, that they be linked. We are especially pleased to report that the Empowerment for Employment component, which includes the presentation of Business Awareness Workshops, job skills training, entrepreneurial training, learnerships and job placement services, is progressing particularly well.