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Much attention is being paid to South Africa’s high crime rates and to how these might be reduced. Most of this attention has focused on improving policing, prosecution and conviction rates, ensuring that harsher sentences are handed down and that more prisons are built. The development of a National Crime Prevention Strategy in 1996 also ensured that efforts to prevent crime are under way in several parts of the country.
Despite all this, the one dimension that is seldom discussed and researched, both within the criminal justice and crime prevention sectors, is the problem of repeat offending, or recidivism. Although conclusive figures on the extent of recidivism are hard to come by, the consensus is that the vast majority of offenders in the country’s prisons have prior convictions. Two facts about the situation in South Africa’s prisons are indisputable: overcrowding has reached untenable proportions, and the majority of those who are sentenced to serve a prison term will eventually be released back into society.
This means that any plan to reduce crime must include some initiatives that aim to reintegrate former prisoners into society so that they can become productive citizens. This in no way changes the fact that offenders must be made accountable for their crimes, and must take responsibility for their actions. Rather, it is in society’s interests to ensure that they become functional members again instead of returning to a life of crime, as most currently do.
In this monograph, Lukas Muntingh of the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO) questions whether the current system of imprisonment can achieve the desired goals of punishment and ensure that instead of reoffending, a former prisoner can become a member of the community once again. The monograph makes a case for offender reintegration by considering the theories behind punishment, the conditions in South Africa’s prisons and both international and local examples of reintegration projects.
It is hoped that this monograph will contribute to a better understanding of reintegration in the South African context and will encourage policy makers and practitioners to consider this important issue in their planning of crime reduction strategies.
Antoinette Louw
Programme Head
Crime and Justice Programme
Institute for Security Studies
Pretoria
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