Cape Town - The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro) has made a controversial call for inmates to be offered paid work in businesses set up within prison walls.
Stopping short of suggesting violent offenders be included, Nicro executive director Soraya Solomon told Parliament's correctional services portfolio committee on Tuesday such ventures should be aimed at petty offenders.
"We need to treat prison labour as part of the work force of South Africa and not as a separate entity. We would do well to introduce profit-oriented employment practices within the prison as part of the reintegration process of the prisoner," she told MPs.
Acknowledging there were high levels of violent crime in the country, she said it would be a major challenge getting South Africans to understand the value of such a rehabilitation programme.
Not for serious offenders now
"Now we're not, unfortunately, talking serious crimes right now because that's such a sensitive issue. We're really focusing on those prisoners who have committed petty... crimes, minor offences, because I don't think South Africa is ready to deal with the violent offenders, or be sympathetic to violent offenders right now.
"Yes, Nicro is going ahead and looking at research on the phenomenon of violence in the country, but I think we really need to focus on those people who should be given a second chance. That have committed the minor offences... those people society is prepared to take back," Solomon said.
Her colleague, Nicro programme development director Celia Dawson, said the type of "production centres" that could be developed in prisons included businesses such as waste recycling and call centres.
The latter was "a very stable enterprise... that shouldn't be too difficult to start within the walls of a prison".
It was important, she stressed, for such centres to be viable and something the economy needed, if the business was to succeed.
On payment to prisoners, she said a market-related wage might be difficult, "but there is the concept of a minimum wage".
Paid to prisoners' families
Dawson suggested a portion of this might be paid to prisoners' families.
"There has to be some remuneration for prisoners... [We] must get away from cheap and free labour."
She admitted such production centres "might not enjoy initial public support".
Nicro saw such work as a "rehabilitation tool", but one that was part of a bigger package.
"Work alone will not bring about rehabilitation," she told members.
Change in thinking needed
Solomon said a paradigm shift in thinking was needed on crime and criminals.
"We've got to start looking at really out-of-the-box solutions to the issue of crime," she said.
If the recidivism rate (the number of offenders who returned to crime) was examined, it was apparent South Africa was not very successful when it came to rehabilitation.
Pilot job project set up
Nicro was set to start a pilot project employing prisoners. There was a lot of support around the country for the notion that prisoners should be put to work, but people had to see these were effective.
"They want effective models that work, and if we can show society that the model that we have is beginning to show value, and that is that people are not committing crime again, then I think society will bite.
"What we've failed to do is really be able to prove, to show society that we are effective and we are making progress and we are successfully re-integrating prisoners.
Help idle prisoners
"Most prisoners are doing nothing... we really want to push this," she said.
Committee chairman Dennis Bloem earlier told MPs there were a lot of idle prisoners in South Africa, who were falling prey to "sodomy and gangsterism" while serving their sentences.
According to a Nicro document released at the briefing, there are over 157 000 prison inmates around the country, of whom 104 000 are over 20 years old.
More than 59 000 prisoners were released each year -- at the end of their sentence, or on parole.
"The majority of these are probably economically-active males," the document says.
Solomon called for government support to get the project started.
"[We] obviously need venture capital to start... This is where we are looking to government," she said.