República de Moçambique

Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, Ensino Superior e Técnico Profissional

From Lamentation to Affirmative Police: A Proven Alternative to Solving African

Prisional/Correctional/Penitentiary Budgetary Dilemma

4th ACSA BIENNIAL CONFERENCE

17 May 2017

Presentation Structure

I. From lamentations

II. From lamentations to changes; possible ways

III. Conclusions

2

Lamentations in the Penitentiary Systems

3

Definition:

The lamentation is the act or

effect of whining, crying,

complaining, funeral song.

(in online Portuguese Dictionary viewed on 26th April 2017).

Main Lamentations (problems) of the Prisons /

Corrections / Penitentiary System

•Reduced Budget;

•Degraded infrastructures;

•Overcrowding;

•Health and contagious diseases;

•Insufficiency of human resources;

•Lack of work equipment.

Cont.

4

Degraded infrastructures

The maintenance of Prison / Correctional / Penitentiary

buildings is quite costly. For example, in 2003 in Lesotho,

the Commissioner of Prisons identified at least (4) four

prisons which in his view were to be demolished under

penalty of causing leakage due to the high degree of

structural degradation.

(Nabetse Sekhonye CSPRI Newsletter Nr. 10 of April 2005 http://acjr.org.za/resource-centre/10%20-

%20April%202005.pdf last accessed April 26, 2017).

5

Overcrowding

For Sarkin (2008), along with other problems that African

Prison Services face today, overcrowding is one of the

most urgent concerns, since it has its roots in the

continent's colonial past. This is associated with lack of

resources at various levels of the judicial system.

6

Nampula Provincial Penitentiary Facility.photo 2009.

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Cont.

In general, the health services in prison systems in Africa are often poorly qualified, equipped and budgeted. An assessment conducted in 12 prisons in five areas in Tanzania in 2012 found that about 75% of the facilities surveyed did not have sufficiently trained medical personnel and that most of these facilities were poorly equipped. (https://www.unodc.org/easternafrica/en/Stories/zanzibar-prison.html visited on 27 April 2017).

8

Cont.

This, combined with budgetary constraints and

the absence of qualified human resources,

prevents the implementation of reformist policies

in the health system and promotes an unavoidable

prioritization of safety to the detriment of health,

resulting from a clearly legal-oriented paradigm of

action.

9

Difficulties of rehabilitation and social

reintegration of the convicts

The domain of rehabilitation and social

reintegration, and the lack of financial and

qualified human resources at various levels

precludes the implementation of effective

rehabilitation projects in African

Prison/Correctional and Penitentiary Systems

(ibid.). (Nabetse Sekhonye Boletim informativo do CSPRI Nr 10 Abril de 2005 in http://acjr.org.za/resource-

centre/10%20-%20April%202005.pdf ultimo acesso a 26 de Abril. de 2017).

10

From lamentation – Possible ways

• Change of attitude

• Self-esteem promotion

• Increase in productive activities at industrial scale

• Establishment of workshops production

• Provision of services to the community

• Establishment of Public-Private Partnership

11

The Rwanda Experience

The Correctional Services of Rwanda save millions of dollars in the use of

biogas as a source of clean energy as an example.

Rwanda has 13 Facilities with about 60,000 convicts, who consumed about 10

toneladas of firewood a day, equivalent to an annual cost of about 1 billion

Rwandans ($ 1.7 million), all of that money spent on buying firewood.

The Rwandan Government has restructured prison management and the new

administration has come with this initiative as a long-term solution

After realizing the success of biogas in prisons, the Rwandan Government

introduced the National Domestic Biogas Program (NDBP) focusing on rural

areas helping them to cook using clean energy.

http://cleanleap.com/rwanda-biogas-prisons-saves-millions-dollars

12

The Rwanda Experience

13

República de Moçambique

Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, Ensino Superior e Técnico Profissional

The South African experience (RSA)

Establishment of production workshops

• The Department has ten (10) wood and steel workshops, nineteen (19) textile workshops, eight bakeries (8), twenty one (21) farms and one hundred and six (106) small farms that are managed by qualified artisans (production workshops) and agriculture technicians (farms), respectively. These entities contribute towards self-sufficiency and offender training as well as development.

• Value of products manufactured :

• Economic efficiency: 2015/2016

Wood/Steel - R 69 451 716

Textiles - R71 698 021

• Eight (8) bakeries have been established across different regions

• Two new bakeries were establish in the Western Cape during the 2015/2016 financial year.

• These bakeries created work and training opportunities to ± 30 offenders.

• The two bakeries baked ± 320 624 loaves of bread at a average cost of R4.51.

16

The South African experience (RSA)

The production aims to meet the internal needs,

namely:

• National Correctional Centers, (production of

offenders' clothes, office and correctional facility cell

furniture and recreational equipment).

• Correctional Service farms,

• Correctional Service kitchens, schools, hospitals

and dog units.

• Correctional Service Training Centers and Colleges.

• Construction and maintenance service, ex.

Manufacture of cell doors, grills, locks and keys.

17

Furniture produced in South African Correctional Institutions

18

The South African experience (RSA)

Agro-livestock activities in South African correctional facilities

19

The South African experience (RSA)

The Zimbabwe Experience

Maize production Central pivot irrigation in Mashonaland West province

20

ZIM꞉ Cotton Production Chiredzi Masvingo Province

Production - 30.000kg.

ZIM꞉ Building Brigades at Work

The Mozambique Experience - Salt

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The Mozambique Experience - Salt

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Provide services to the community and society

For example, Zimbabwe Community Service was

implemented in 1994.

In November 1997, in Kadoma, was held an International

Conference on the raw of Community Service in Africa.

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Provide services to the community and society

The Conference produced the Kadoma Declaration and the

Community Service Action Plan.

The success of the project in Zimbabwe led to the

implementation of community service projects in 1999 in

Kenya, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville,

Central African Republic and Mozambique.

In 2002, Senegal, Tanzania and Namibia also adopted

community service legislation.

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Public-Private Partnerships

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Public partnerships

Data provided in May 2017 indicate that the Department of

Correctional Services of South Africa has signed memorandum

with various institutions within the framework of public partnerships,

namely:

Memorandum of Understanding - MoU with the Teaching

Department whose purpose is the provision of Portfolios and chairs,

furniture frames, office furniture, school furniture Rehabilitation.

Memorandum of Understanding - MoU with the Department of

Health, whose purpose is the provision of office furniture, beds,

wardrobes, security gate and locks for Psychiatric Facilities..

cont.

Public-private partnership

Data from 2015, collected during the visit to the State of Israel, indicate

that the Economic Activities, although there is a service dependent

on the prison service, it is autonomous.

Thus, there are 66 industries in which about 3000 convicts work.

The industrial product is supplied to the different institutions of the

State and obligatorily the Defense and Security Forces.

They also provide the international market. There is a partnership

between the private industry and the prisons, where they give up

the places, water, electricity, and the inmates and the Private

partnership provides the equipment and signs an Economic

Contract.

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cont.

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Prisons have the mission of occupying

convicted people so that they do not

occupy the system, based on the following

philosophical principle: Find money, get

money to make money.

Backup Supervision

An effective supervision at the

national level is crucial to facilitate

a reform. Encouraging openness

and transparency in an

environment of constructive and

critical debate are key elements for

prison/penitenciari/correcional

reform.

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Conclusion

Most African economies can not sustain large prison populations or large

prison-building programs to house hundreds of thousands of convicted

prisoners. There are much more urgent needs in most African societies.

Prison reform can be achieved if it happens according to a plan that is clear in

terms of policy and budget. Resources are too limited to pursue quick fixes and

policy changes are also another factor. We must recognize that sustainable

solutions take time to be developed and implemented - that is the nature

of true transformation.

31

BET ON A MAN AS A CENTRAL ELEMENT

Building a Correctional and Professional System in

Africa: A Strategic Objective

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Kigali, 17 May 2017

32 Profesor Doctor Luís Cezerilo