Changing offender behaviour is key to reducing crime!

A recent Cape Times interview with Tracy Van der Westhuizen, an inmate serving time at Pollsmoor Prison for fraud, highlights the efforts by this female inmate to change her life around. Although she still has some time to go before potential release on parole, she is taking tangible steps towards rehabilitation. Her full rehabilitation can of course only be tested once she is free and facing the temptations that life in open society will bring. But she is well on the road to recovery and regaining her dignity.

South Africa has 242 prisons housing some 160,000 inmates, with an admission rate of approximately 25,000 and a monthly average of 23,000 releases. As Van der Westhuizen highlights, many of those admitted to prison have committed crime before, making support services during and post incarceration crucial.

Re-offending and recidivism are vexed questions – there is no direct research or analysis that gives us a plausible rate of recidivism in South Africa. Anecdotally it is said to be extremely high – with references to as high as 70%. What we do know is that many former prison inmates return to prison as a result of further convictions. NICRO’s experience with reintegration work demonstrates that often imprisonment acts as a ‘revolving door’ or as ‘universities of crime’ and that, notwithstanding the efforts of the Correctional authorities, not all inmates are rehabilitated.

It is for this reason that Tracy’s story is inspiring. Her story indicates that rehabilitation is a multi layered journey – inmates require psychological transformation – focusing on their emotional and cognitive functioning, as well as education and skills training. A different way of thinking, and an opportunity to work, is part of the ‘rehabilitation recipe’.

Tracy’s story also indicates another crucial factor in rehabilitation – and that is the support and love of family…. the confidence and love of her husband and children, and the amazing insight of her young daughter, provides her with the inspiration and incentive to do the difficult work of rehabilitation.

Prison is not an easy life – “it is not for sissies” –one has to develop strong coping skills to survive prison! Ironically these coping skills are the ones that will help you make it in open society.

National non-profit organisation, NICRO, is working successfully with incarcerated and released offenders to change behaviour and reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

NICRO has no doubt that perpetrators can change, and we are working hard to support inmates and released offenders to successfully reintegrate into society and turn away from crime.”

Chief Executive Director Soraya Solomon says “NICRO provides a range of tried and tested behavior change programmes and is facilitating successful social reintegration, which includes working with the offender’s family members. NICRO believes these services are crucial to achieving the goal of turning lives around and reducing recidivism.”

Society can assist in prisoner rehabilitation by supporting the efforts of former inmates to earn a living and become functioning members of their communities.

Life After 44 Years in Prison

After being in prison for 44 years, the world can be an overwhelming place. To Otis Johnson, there was a vast amount of people walking fast, staring at their mobile devices and not paying attention to the world around them.

This can be a confusing time for someone who has been in prison since 1975. Johnson feels that he has entered a frightening society where everyone is a secret agent, watching people and wearing wires. We don't blame him, the tech era completely passed him by when he has in prison.

The 44 year sentence began when Johnson was arrested for the attempted murder of a police man. He entered jail when he was just 25 years old and by the time he came out in August 2014 he was 69.

Johnson was meant to be released earlier, but he ended up serving an extra eight months at the age of 69 for a juvenile shoplifting charge he received when he was 17!

The initiatives to reduce the sentences for drug offenders and nonviolent crimes are under way, but it seems like the old people in prison also need a legislation reform.

From 1999 to 2014, the amount of prisoners aged from 55 and older went up by 250%, while those younger than 55 grew by only 8%. It seems that the number of elderly prisoners is growing over the years.

After drug offenders are qualified for early release, elderly prisoners could be next to be reintroduced into the world.

But, just think about the problems and obstacles that former inmates will face after spending most of their lives locked up. They will face things such as mental health issues and side effects.

“Prison decides when lights go on and when they go off,” Marieke Liem, a researcher at Harvard Kennedy School, said “Every moment of the day is scheduled. When you have been in the prison system the majority of your life, how can you be expected to function as a member of society? And make a plan?”

Upon release from prison, Johnson was handed an ID, documents outlining his criminal case history, $40 and two bus tickets. Having lost all family connections while serving his sentence, Johnson now relies on a nonprofit that provides housing and services to ex-prisoners in Harlem. NICRO is a nonprofit organisation in South Africa that provides a number of rehabilitation services, prison programmes and so much more. Do your part and contact NICRO to get help, or make a donation today!

Each day, he navigates the world as best as he can. He involves himself with a local mosque. He practices tai chi and meditates. He attempts to pursue his dream of opening up a shelter for women, though with his lack of credit history securing the funds for such a project has proven close to impossible. He walks the streets of New York, observing people around him. He returns to his nonprofit housing at 9pm each night, heeding his curfew.

With the current focus on reform, Johnson hopes that re-entry for ex-prisoners, including those having served for decades, will be streamlined to effectively address their needs. Whether freedom can prove liberating, rather than overwhelming, for those convicts who have grayed behind bars, remains to be seen.

Confessions Of A Prisoner

Plenty of bad things happen in prison, few compare to the horrors of moving to a new jailcell in a new wing... There is a story told directly from the mouth of a prisoner...

What’s the worst thing about being moved to a new prison?  Probably the lottery you face on arrival. What’s your new cellmate going to be like?  Will he be a serial killer or an unpredictable psychopath; or will he be some poor lad suffering from some kind of mental illness who really should be in a hospital?

When I first heard I was being moved I wasn’t best pleased. At the time, I was only two years in on a life sentence, but I’d already heard so many horror stories about this establishment that I just knew prison life was about to get a lot more difficult.  In this grim environment, humanity counts for little because to the prison staff, we really are just cattle: one on, one off and make a note of the numbers in and out.

After a long journey, I was herded onto a new wing and stopped on the landing outside the door of my new lodgings. As cellmates go, ‘Joe’ seemed to be OK. But over the years, especially in prison, if there’s one thing I have learned, it’s this: trust no-one.

Over a couple of days, I settled in and it was shaping up bearable enough; that was until I was approached on the wing by another prisoner who gave me a ‘friendly warning’.

Stay away from Joe, he said, something bad was about to happen to him and it would be better if I made myself scarce while it was occurring.

Moral dilemma time. My predicament was this: First off, I couldn’t sit back and let it happen without giving him at least a heads-up.

But if I tell him, I’m a grass and trust me; to put it delicately, that’s not a good thing. At the same time, my ‘friendly warning’ came with the clear message; stay out of it.

You’ve also got to ask yourself; are you really prepared to start inheriting the enemies of a bloke you just met two days previously?

But I knew I had to warn Joe; I’d already seen too much suffering in my own life to idly watch him suffer. So I told him. I tried to reason with him: he would be better off on another wing; even if it was the VP (vulnerable prisoners) wing.

Let’s just say, Joe wasn’t the advice-taking type and about an hour later, four lads came in on top of him in the cell. He was ready for them and a can of tuna in a sock gave him at least a fighting chance. And to give Joe his due, he put up one hell of a fight. In fact, even after being stabbed in the leg, he came out better. His attackers went away beaten, bruised and black-eyed. It was still unfinished business.

Joe was taken away to healthcare to receive stitches. Now, to my knowledge; the staff has a duty of care and a set of procedures to follow in these kind of incidents. Photos should be taken of the injuries; incident reports need to be filled out and most crucially, for his own safety, the prisoner should always be moved immediately.

For reasons I can’t fathom, none of these things happened and after a brief stint in healthcare, a patched-up but wounded Joe duly arrived back onto the same wing...

Later on that day, I was again approached on the wing by one of Joe’s attackers and the warning was the same; stay away from your cellmate, it’s going to come on top.

Why was I given this warning? I think word had already got around the wing that I was the bona fide victim of a serious criminal justice stitch-up, and I suspect it was probably felt that they should look out for people like me.

Lots of prisoners will tell you that they are innocent. But the prisoners who actually maintain their innocence are few and far between. I am one such prisoner. I don’t consider myself a criminal; far from it, in fact.

Maintaining innocence, I can assure you, doesn’t make for an easy ride from the prison authorities. Not surprising really when progressing through the penal system depends in large part on your acceptance of your crime and punishment.

Whatever about mine, I was pretty certain that Joe’s punishment was imminent if he lingered any longer on the wing. Again, I pleaded with him and again he remained resolute and unmoved.

I left the cell reluctantly. My sense of foreboding was broken shortly after by a scream; I’d never heard anything like it. I turned in time to see a filthy junkie walking quickly out of the cell with a flask in his hand.

Joe came crawling out after that. As it turned out, that wasn’t too far from the truth. It was boiling oil that the junkie had thrown in Joe’s face. I heard subsequently that it had been heating in a pot for a half hour; it was so hot, it had melted the flask’s plastic lid-casing when it was being poured in.

I wanted so badly to help him but there was nothing I could do. And all the while this going on, the prison guards were down the other end of the landing doing their crossword; exactly where they’d been conveniently plotted up when Joe was attacked the first time. Some duty of care.

That was the last time I saw Joe; after that, he never returned.

This story was written as an open letter to all the ‘plastic gangsters’ out there on the social networks, bragging about what a holiday camp prison is; like it’s the Thug Life version of a finishing school; like going to prison is a good thing for your bad boy CV. The awkward truth is that if these wannabes had any brains, they probably wouldn’t be inside in the first place.

I am now five years into my life sentence, and I can tell you from bitter experience that prison is not a holiday camp. This was just one of the many incidents I have witnessed over these years and it was never cut out to be the last.

NICRO is committed to turning lives around - We encourage all South Africans not to stand back, but become involved either by donating a monthly amount, a once-off donation or look at the NICRO wish list for support in kind for around the country and see how you can assist.

Why do some Teens use Drugs?

Yes, teens are known to experiment with a variety of drugs, from alcohol to prescription pills, but the real question is – Why do they do it?

There are a number of reasons why teens take drugs...

To fit in. Many teens decide to use drugs because they think that is what all the cool kids are doing; they feel it is necessary for them to do in order to fit in.

To feel good. Some drugs affect the brain in a way that produces feelings of euphoria or pleasure. The intensity of these good feelings differs depending on what drugs are being abused.

To feel better. A lot of teens suffer from depression, anxiety or high levels of stress, teens use drugs to escape these feelings.

To do better. In today’s society there is so much pressure on teens to do well academically and athletically, but the truth is for a lot of us that’s just not possible. Teens may turn to drugs, like illegal stimulants to boost their performances.

To experiment. Teens are usually curious to look for new experiences (like drugs) that they may find exciting, risky or daring.

There is no single reason why teens use drugs, but it is up to us to talk to and help the younger generation – NICRO is committed to turning lives around, contact NICRO today for a variety of programmes, including the Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Treatment.