An Empirical Assessment of the Effectiveness of Offenders’ Rehabilitation Approach in South Africa: A Case Study of the Westville Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

The South African Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has a constitutional mandate to provide rehabilitation programs that address offenders’ criminal conducts. The rehabilitation approach currently used to deliver this mandate is grounded on the needs-based model where dynamic factors associated with recidivism are systematically targeted in the treatment of offenders’ criminal behaviors. In this research, a qualitative research methodology was employed, and a case study research design was utilized. Purposeful non-probability sampling was utilized to recruit participants. Thirty inmates and 20 correctional center officials who met the inclusion criteria for the study were selected to participate. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data during the empirical investigation. The findings of this study demonstrated that the DCS’s mission is far from being accomplished due to its failure to implement rehabilitation programs. The research study, therefore, recommends that for the success of a rehabilitation approach in South Africa, a critical review of the strategy meant to achieve this goal is required.

Keywords

Corrections needs-based care approach rehabilitation offender South Africa

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Africa Check. (2017). Overcrowding, disease and torture: The state of South Africa’s prisons . Wits Justice Project.

Akih

Dreyer

(2017). Penal reform in Africa: The case of prison chaplaincy. Theological Studies , LXXIII(3), 1–9.

Baumgardt

(2013). Quality assurance challenges for private providers in post-school education and training in South Africa (PhD in Education Management Thesis). University of South Africa.

Bonta

(2007). Offender risk assessment and sentencing. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice , 49, 519–529.

Boyatzis

(1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development . SAGE Publications.

Casey

Day

Vess

Ward

(2012). Foundations of offender rehabilitation . Routledge.

Cilliers

Smit

(2007). Offender rehabilitation in the South African correctional system: Myth or reality? Acta Criminologica , II(20), 1–83.

Coetzee

(2003a). Ethics in correction—A South African perspective. Acta Criminologica , I(16), 63–71.

Colvin

(1997). Penitentiaries, reformatories, and chain gangs: Social theory and the history of punishment in nineteenth-century America . St. Martin’s Press.

10.

Coyle

(2009). A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management: A handbook for prison staff . UK: International Centre for Prison Studies.

11.

Cullen

Gendreau

(2000). Assessing correctional rehabilitation: Policy, practice, and prospects. Policies, Processes, and Decisions of the Criminal Justice System , III, 109–175.

12.

Department of Correctional Services. (2018). Department of correctional services annual report 2017/2018 . Department of Correctional Services.

13.

Dissel

(2012). Good practice principles in reducing reoffending: A review of the literature . Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative.

14.

Dissel

Kollapen

(2016). Racism and discrimination in the South African penal system . The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

15.

Hesselink-Louw

(2014). Criminological assessment of prison inmates: A constructive mechanism towards offender rehabilitation . University of South Africa.

16.

Irwin

(2010). Prisons in Turmoil . Little, Brown.

17.

Matetoa

(2012). The professional role of the correctional officer in the rehabilitation of offenders . UNISA.

18.

Motiuk

Serin

(n.d.). Situating risk assessment in the reintegration potential framework . Research Branch, Correctional Service Canada.

19.

Muntingh

Gould

(2010). Towards an understanding of repeat violent offending: A review of the literature . Oxford University Press.

20.

Rothman

(1971). Discovery of the asylum: Social order and disorder in the new republic . Little, Brown.

21.

Rotman

(1995). The failure of reform: United States, 1865–1965. In Morris

Rothman

(Eds.), The Oxford history of prison: The practice of punishment in Western society (pp. 151–177). Oxford University Press.

22.

Toseland

Rivas

(2011). An introduction to group work practice . Pearson.

23.

United Nations. (1955). United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Offenders . United Nations.

24.

Management

United Nations International Standards of Good Prison

(2009). New York: United Nations.

25.

Van der Westhuizen

Lombard

(2005). A model for community corrections residential centres in South Africa from a social work perspective. Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of Criminology , III(18), 101–109.

26.

Ward

Stewart

2003. The relationship between human needs and criminogenic needs. Psychology, Crime and Law , 9(3), 219–224.

27.

White Paper on Corrections. (2005). Government Printers.