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DO WE BELIEVE IN REHABILITATION?

27/07/2017 03:53:00 By Vusi Kunene

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WE have on a number of occasions heard judicial officers imposing sentences of years, months or days imprisonment on offenders.

Sometimes the offender is given an option of a fine instead of spending time in prison. Sometimes a sentence is suspended for a certain period. After serving the sentence or paying the fine it is believed that one should not then be punished for the same offence.

In my opinion though, some people are punished for the same offence repeatedly. People who were sentenced for a few months or years end up serving life sentences.

The question is why is it so when we have Correctional facilities which we believe are up to standard? These institutions were changed from prisons to Correctional facilities because it was believed that it would rehabilitate offenders but it seems we do not trust the work Correctional facilities do. We now even have a school that caters for children who are in conflict with the law.

My worry, before you wonder what I am talking about, is the issue of fingerprints. The taking of fingerprints is a lifelong punishment for the people who were once in conflict with the law. The truth of the matter is that we have all once committed an offence in our lives. We have all been involved in a fight while growing up as children.

If that had been reported by any person then it would have easily been a case of assault and one would have had his or her fingerprints taken. This is tantamount to a life sentence because anytime a police clearance is needed for whatever, the fingerprints will show and that would be the end of it.

There are children attending school at the juvenile facility for petty offences and sometimes you can tell that it was because of their behaviour that the offence was committed. These children already have their chances diminished as no matter how good they can be, they cannot be employed by certain institutions such as the security forces of the country. I then wonder if we believe that our Correctional facilities are doing a good job in rehabilitating offenders.

The same Correctional Services that is tasked with the rehabilitation of offenders is among the institutions that do not employ people with criminal records. Do they believe the work they are doing if they are also not willing to engage the same people whom they claim to have rehabilitated?

Is the Correctional Services not playing double standards in the way it does things? It tells us that it changes behaviour in its institutions such that some parents were even violating their children’s rights by taking them to the juvenile school because of misbehaving. When these children finish school the Correctional Services turns its back on them. The children end up serving a life sentence because they may end up not being employed.

I believe we would not be having the fingerprints scandal in the country if it was not for this reason and I know there is an ongoing case pending in court. If we have good people who were once in conflict with the law, then why are we not revisiting the laws that keep fingerprints forever? I am told that when one applies for an international passport, that person must be cleared by the police.

If the fingerprints reveal that the person was once convicted, then no matter how good a business person she or he might be, he or she will not be granted the passport. Think of the repercussions thereafter.

What is troubling me even more is that our parliament realised this and they corrected it for themselves. Parliamentarians made a provision that fingerprints or a conviction record should not hinder one from standing for elections. We have examples of parliamentarians who have criminal records. To me this insinuates that Parliament believes that a person can be rehabilitated after committing an offence. Why then are they not passing legislation that will do the same for others? There are offences which are not serious yet they hinder people for the rest of their lives.

This is especially applicable to young offenders who should be given another chance in life. Government is losing a lot of money educating people who will not give back to society even after they have served their sentences. Let us think about the children and know that some committed offences because they lacked proper guidance and some did not have the fortitude to resist peer pressure. Let us not give life sentences in disguise. Let us trust our Correctional Services or rather let us improve it to a point where we will believe that it has the capacity to rehabilitate offenders.