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“The invisible and cumulative effects of incarceration on

Intergenerational Poverty”

PRESENTATION, 28 July 2016 by Venessa Padayachee & Jacquline Horn

FOCUS OF PRESENTATION

• NICRO-intro, Paarl-east• Some statistics• Images• Race, class and imprisonment• Effects of incarceration• Inter-generational Economic effects• Incarceration and social inequality (Western & Pettit) • Some observations• Catholic social teaching• Fourth world movement• Alternatives to incarceration–African thinking & other contexts• Some considerations for South Africa

National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO)

NICRO (established 1910), as a Prisoner’s friend organization

Restorative justice lens in looking at crime and punishment and is committed to restoring the harm done by crime, reconciliation and healing.

Building a democratic society, strengthening a human rights culture and creating a safe South Africa in which crime and violence no longer govern.

To this end the organisation engages in lobbying and advocacy, capacity building, direct service delivery and research.

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•26.7% unemployment rate (March

2016) –Stats SA

• 5.7 million people unemployed

•12 million (21.7%)people in

South Africa live in extreme poverty

(Stats SA, March 2014)

Is Inequality to blame?

• Poverty, lack of job creation, lack of public service delivery

•0.62, Rate of inequality/Gini coefficient

(measure distribution of income)

•160,000 people incarcerated in

South Africa

Stats: http://www.defenceweb.co.za

South Africa 2012/2013 per month

66 000 arrests

29 000 convictions

25 000 imprisoned

23 000 released

Stats: news24 & Sowetan Live

South Africa August 2013120 000 spaces 160 000 inmates

highest inmate population in AFRICA

R8 000 per month per prisoner

Sentenced population by race and nationality (2010-2014)-SAIRR

YEAR AFRICAN

% COLOURED

% INDIAN/ASIAN

% WHITE

% FOREIGN NATIONALS

% TOTAL

2010 90520 20296 624 2167 4999 118606

2011 89796 20213 619 2147 5856 118631

2012 85828 18022 607 1989 5437 111883

2013 87840 18437 642 1967 5496 114382

2014 92145 76 19727 16 706 0.58 2013 1.7 6150 5.09 120741

Foreign nationals increase -23%; Indian/Asian increase -13%; Coloured –decrease 3%; African population –increase 2%; White population –decrease 7%

Sentenced vs un-sentenced populationmale vs female (DCS Annual report,

2013/2014)

Custody status Male % Female

total

Sentenced 105206 97.69% 2490 2.31% 107696

Un-sentenced 43853 97.76% 1005 2.24% 44858 (29%)

TOTAL 149059 97.71% 3495 2.29% 152554

PRISN POPULATION BY AGE, March 2014, JICS 2013/14 Annual report

Age Sentenced Un-sentenced Total Proportion oftotal prison population

Between 14 & 25 years old

27045 18227 45272 29%

Over 25 years 83367 26009 109376 71%

Total 110412 44236 154648 100%

Remand detainees by amount of bail they cannot afford, March 2015, JICS

Annual Report, 2014/15, p46BAIL AMOUNT NUMBER OF DETAINEES Proportion of remand

detainees out of all who could not afford bail

R500 or less 3339 45%

R500-R1000 2334 31%

R1001-R2000 1082 14%

R2001-R5000 124 2%

Total 7468 100%

Year Economic Aggressive/Violent Sexual Narcotics Total

1995/96 35488 34811 8078 3458 81835

1996/97 36060 37927 9477 3571 87035

1997/98 38657 41328 10624 4053 94662

1998/99 34768 41718 11495 3724 91705

1999/2000 35540 44090 11937 3671 95238

2000/01 37523 49315 12859 3620 103317

2001/02 37660 54194 14077 3556 109487

2002/03 38981 59766 15571 3869 118187

2003/04 38639 64080 16960 3746 123425

2004/05 37789 68661 17911 3499 127860

2005/06 28590 67254 18399 2901 117144

2006/07 23898 64813 18027 2562 109300

2007/08 24715 63812 17744 2424 108695

2008/09 25243 63559 18073 2473 109348

2009/10 25694 63746 18405 2561 110406

2010/11 25575 62267 18128 2641 108611

2011/12 25417 61174 18040 2691 107322

2012/13 19999 58242 18793 2692 99726

2013/14 22893 (22%) 59691 19812 3245 105911

Sentenced prisoners per crime category (1995/96-2013/14) Source: The Presidency, 2014 Development Indicators, September 2015, p73 (supplement

version)

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client profile @ NICRO – Educational status

School drop out

43%

No

School

2%

Schooling

27%

Tertiary

Education

8%

Completed High School

20%

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African

80%

client profile @ NICRO - Race

Coloured

11%White

6%Asian

3%

African –79.8%; Coloured - 9%; Asian – 2.5%; White – 8.7 %SA mid-year population stats - 2013

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78% 22%

client profile @ NICRO - Gender

Males – 78 %; Females 22%SA mid-year population stats - 2013

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client profile @ NICRO – Employment status

Self employed

6%

Scholar/Student

28%

Unemployed

37%

Formally

Employed

19%Casually

employed

10%

South Africa

Repeat offending after release 65-85%

Reintegration challenges

• De-institutionalization;

• Unemployment & criminal records;

• Psychological effects -PTSD; Stigma, rejection;

• Family and community;

• Accommodation;

• Relationships;

• Go back to violent and impoverished communities –socio-economic challenges can draw them back into gangs and crime

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Race, class & Imprisonment

• Extraordinary high rates among Black African population and disproportionate rates among Coloured population in the Western cape

• Mostly young men 18-35

• In communities such as Paarl-east, Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Hanover Park-for a large majority of young men spending time in prison is fast becoming a norm..

The House I live in (documentary)

• Imprisonment in US-an assault on poor communities of colour ....is described ‘holocaust in slow motion’

• chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvFobm01kBwaust

The Harmful effects of Incarceration

• The Experience of incarceration is traumatic;• The effects depends on:

– individual personality factors;– whether a detainee has experienced a form of imprisonment before;– Previous exposure to trauma signals a greater risk of Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder from subsequent trauma (Breslau, Naomi, et al. "Previous exposure to trauma and PTSD effects of subsequent trauma: results from the Detroit Area Survey of Trauma." American Journal of Psychiatry (2014).

• Deprivation of autonomy and personal security;• Severe prison overcrowding – public health issue, dehumanizing-lack of

privacy, limited health-care resources; conflict, rehabilitation, security, limited access to amenities and recreation facilities, insufficient exercise, limited work opportunities, access to families .

• Psychological (that which is inflicted on the soul, mind of people-inhumane treatment, torture; bullying, threats of violence..)

• Social oppression -, loss of identity; inequality-”othering of people” along racial and ethnic lines; superiority and inferiority;

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Effects of trauma

• Anger, Guilt, Anxiety, Shame , Humiliation, Inability to be assertive; Unresolved Grief; Inability to mourn; Aggression; PTSD; Depression; Domestic violence; Inter-personal violence; intra-group violence; inter-group violence; suicidal ideation; lack of parenting skills by some; low self-esteem; internalised oppression; denial; hyper vigilance; dissociation

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The detrimental economic effects of imprisonment

• Imprisonment carries both direct and indirect consequences-visible and invisible• Direct consequences of imprisonment pervasive and profound –the “pains of

imprisonment.” (Sykes, 1958). • These include being deprived of liberty, material comfort, heterosexual relationships,

autonomy and security, lose intimacy of family & friends. May lose spouse and children

• Most of worldly possessions as forfeited, loaned or stolen• Homes, farms, businesses and material possessions claimed by relatives, repossessed

by the bank or confiscated by the government. • Indirect or collateral consequences of incarceration may not be evident to prisoners

until they are released from prison;• Termination of parenting rights, Divorce, Families affected-single parents –economic

status affected• Legal structural impediments to successful re-entry to the community restrict the ex-

prisoner to a structure of diminished resources• Criminal records, stigma & discrimination, Unemployment rates high • Psychological• Physical –Health

(Western & Pettit, Incarceration & Social inequality, 2010);

• Social and economic disadvantage, crystallizing in penal confinement, is sustained over the life course and transmitted from one generation to another (2010:8);

• This is a profound institutionalized inequality that has renewed class and race disadvantage;

• Perhaps the most important social fact is the inequality in incarceration;• The influence of incarceration on social and economic disadvantage can be seen in

the economic and family lives of the formerly incarcerated• The social inequality produced by incarceration is sizeable and enduring for 3 main

reasons: it is invisible, it is cumulative and it is inter-generational• The inequality is invisible in that in that institutionalized populations lie outside

the official accounts of economic well being; • The inequality is cumulative because the social and economic penalties that flow

from incarceration are accrued by those who already have the weakest economic opportunities; Mass incarceration thus deepens disadvantage and forecloses mobility for the most marginalized in our society;

• These inequalities are inter-generational, not just affecting those who go to prison but their families and children too.

NICRO

• At NICRO we have seen generations going in and out of prison

• Children of offenders are seen to be most vulnerable and at risk

• Imprisonment also impacts significantly on families ending up being more marginalized and impoverished. Economically active populations are taken away and sent to prison-burden mostly on women to provide for the families

• Economic inequality & social injustice-we can no longer ignore our inequality problem

• Impact of criminal records

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NICRO believes

Prison should be an option

…not the solution..hence

we promote alternatives to incarceration

Some observations on links between crime, imprisonment, and inter

generational poverty• Prisons filled with people of colour and poor

people

• Poverty, unemployment, imprisonment & inequality are risk factors

• Imprisonment high indicator for recidivism & future poverty

• Incarceration is likely to impact on inter-generational poverty

• The poor suffer disproportionately from crime

POPE FRANCIS

• ” some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralizedworkings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting”

• http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/pope-franciss-challenge-to-global-capitalism

THE VATICAN

• “The need to resolve the structural causes of poverty cannot be delayed, not only for the pragmatic reason of its urgency for the good order of society, but because society needs to be cured of a sickness which is weakening and frustrating it, and which can only lead to new crises. Welfare projects, which meet certain urgent needs, should be considered merely temporary responses. As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.”

http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.pdf, Para202, pg159-160

• “We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market. Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires de-cisions, programmes, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality. I am far from proposing an irresponsible populism, but the economy can no longer turn to remedies that are a new poison, such as attempting to increase profits by reducing the work force and thereby adding to the ranks of the excluded. “

• Ibid, para 204,pg 161

The Fourth World Movement

• He calls us to understand poverty in a profoundly different way, not just as destitution and oppression but as social isolation. This isolation is created by us all to the degree that we live apart from the poor and fail to understand that their fate is ours.

• Only by understanding that those on the Fourth World are our moral equals and by embracing them as full members of society----neighbours, friends,-----can we possibly begin to deal with the problems of extreme poverty. This is a radical proposal. It suggests that giving charity, paying higher taxes, voting correctly, and political advocacy are not nearly enough. It is only by fundamentally changing our relationship to the poor that true change will be possible”

• Gilles Anouil, The Poor are the Church: A Conversation with Fr. Wresinski ( 2002)Twenty Third Publications, , pg Xll -Xlll

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING

– Life & Dignity of the Human person;– Call to family, community and participation-including

principle of Subsidiarity –decentralized responsibility-the principle of devolving decisions to the lowest practical level of society

– Option for the poor and vulnerable-Solidarity & subsidarity

– Dignity of work and the rights of workers-the economy must serve people, not the other way around

– Solidarity –we are one human family-pursuit of justice & peace

Other developing contexts–Innovative alternatives to incarceration

• Barbados- Innovative practices –reduced serious crime by 14% per year since 1993

• Used community service, uneducated men sent back to school, skills training-teach music, became a restaurateur

• ‘we interpreted certain provisions of the Magistrates act to say that development was lawful.’ –Magistrates Carlisle Grieves

• ‘community service is not just an opportunity for the offenders to serve the community but equally an opportunity for the community to serve the community in the direct rehabilitation of offenders.’

AFRICAN THINKING & developments

• Nigerian criminologist-Adedokun Adeyemi– “In addition to the apparent inefficacy of imprisonment as a deterrent and the increasing financial burden it

is imposing on the African countries, there is also a growing resurgence in the African region of its recognition as a culturally aberrant and abhorrent disposition.”

– Community supervision by the community-head of offenders family

• Attorney General Kenya-Amos Wako-’petty crimes by African standards were completely dealt with by the society itself.”

• Elufemi Odekunle-Alternatives to Imprisonment in Comparative perspective– “The continuation or maintenance of this essentially procedure-dominated and prison-happy philosophy is

ironical, since it is in contradiction with the pre-colonial penal philosophy and practice of most African societies”

• In Uganda in September 1996 at a major conference on penal reform in Africa calls were made for a reform of African penal systems and a move towards the establishment of alternatives to prison.– “It is common today that the public wants offenders to be imprisoned for the smallest offence, not knowing

the effects of imprisonment. First of all they may not be the best places for rehabilitation, and secondly they are costly.”

• Kenya –Statute books provision for penalty called Extra-Mural Penal Employment Scheme-less than six months public work

• Namibia –community service replace prison sentences of up to five years• Zimbabwe –Community service scheme attracting international interest-Judiciary key rolw –

oversee creation and development of the scheme, win public support and involvement-staff and volunteers, continual review and evaluations

Other countries, including developing contexts

• India-converting prison sentences to community service

• Caribbean –mediation in criminal cases

• Magistrate Odette-Luce Bouvier, Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Justice of Senegal, studied alternatives to imprisonment in 21 developing countries in Africa, the Middle-east, South East Asia and Latin America-concluded penal codes in these countries contain few alternatives to prison

• Canada –Amended Criminal code –calls for provinces to develop programmes of alternative measures

Some considerations for SA...• Rethink imprisonment-costly –invest more in development• Changes in legislation to make incarceration as an option of last resort. Alternatives:

– Development, community based conflict resolution and peace building, mediation, peace committees, Restorative justice methodologies, diversion, community service, non-custodial sentencing/alternative sentencing/community based rehabilitation, drug rehabilitation

• Need proper sentencing framework for alternatives • Prevent school to prison pipeline –school drop-outs, alternatives for children displaying

behavioural & delinquent behaviour. • Respect economy in prisons –, work is dignity, skills, tertiary education link to jobs;

periodical incarceration • Review criminal record policies• Invest in Community development-building social capital, social cohesion, community

mobilization and participation in development. Knowledge generation & sharing• Invest in Education. Move people into tertiary education• Skills Development• Job creation –not just low wage bracket• Invest in developing the family as the nucleus of society• Victim empowerment –mental health services, healing, restoration• Long term mentoring• The poor need justice and an ordered and a safe society in order to thrive economically

(Vivien Stern, 1999, Alternatives to prison in developing countries)• Re-think Performance indicators police (arrest); NPA(convictions)?

George Orwell-English novelist, political writer and journalist on Social

injustice

• In time of universal deceit-telling the truth is a revolutionary act

• “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” (satirical novel -Animal Farm, 1945)

Any

Questions?

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