Presentation to Portfolio Committee for Justice and Constitutional Development

1
Presentation to Portfolio Committee for Justice
and Constitutional Development

• The CSIR Crime Prevention Centre supports the
  introduction of the Child Justice Bill and
  congratulates the Minister and Department of
  Justice and in particular the UN Child Justice
  project for the rigorous research and development
  process that has resulted in the Bill under
  consideration.
• We also support the submission made to this
  committee by the Child Justice Alliance, of which
  we are a part. We will not repeat or duplicate
  any matters raised in that submission.
• Our submission today is based on our concern
  that this Bill should be adequately supported in
  implementation and should succeed and contribute
  to a safer South Africa for all.

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Presentation to Portfolio Committee for Justice
and Constitutional Development

• Three issues
• The principles underpinning the Bill and how
  these will be mainstreamed into the CJS and the
  thinking and behaviour of the South African
  people
• Street children and how we ensure equity for the
  most disadvantaged children
• One Stop Centres as delivery mechanisms for Child
  Justice

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Preamble

• We support the principles of the Bill but urge
  that particular attention must be paid to extend
  the intended benefit of the Bill equally to all
  children accused of committing offences.
• Failing such attention we believe that children
  who are already disadvantaged and/or marginalised
  will be further marginalised or even victimised
  by the Bill.
• In this regard we do not believe that the Bill
  provides adequately for so called street
  children. We refer specifically to the need for
  an appropriate adult to attend various
  processes and propose that the state should be
  required to appoint such an appropriate adult
  where there is not one available to the child.

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Preamble

• The Bill sets out to entrench the notion of
  restorative justice in respect of children.
• We believe this to be a very important principle
  of the Bill and regard the introduction of the
  Bill as an opportunity to shift the mindsets of
  service providers and the South African people
  from a punitive to restorative bias. Yet we
  believe that this is a massive challenge.
• The people of South Africa have suffered a depth
  and breadth of victimisation that has resulted in
  a combination of anger and fear. Much of this is
  directed at our young people, especially young
  men. Young men in South Africa are most
  vulnerable to becoming both victims of violence
  and offenders.
• Whilst not all victims of violence go on to
  offend, it is known that well over 90 of violent
  offenders first experience violence as victims or
  bystanders to violence. Thus we know that in many
  cases the victim and the offender are one person.

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Preamble

• Early intervention on their behalf is an
  essential tool in breaking the same cycles of
  violence that make it hard for people to accept
  the notion of restorative justice.
• For this Bill to achieve its goals it will
  require widespread understanding of these
  concepts and belief in restorative justice as a
  mechanism for long term safety. Our exposure to
  service providers and communities alike leads us
  to believe that we are a long way from either
  understanding or belief.
• It is likely that the majority of South Africans
  believe that the Criminal Justice system does not
  deal harshly enough with criminals. In such a
  climate the introduction of this Bill is surely
  threatened by a lack of willingness to support
  its basic principles.
• We cannot find in the supporting documentation
  (Budget and Implementation Plan) an indication of
  either capacity or budget that will be made
  available for change management in this regard.

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Preamble

• Budget and individual departmental responsibility
  for training has been allocated but this is not
  enough.
• In work done in support of the Bill during the
  course of the last year, we have encountered
  resistance from service providers (in particular
  the police) and community workers alike, warning
  that they will be vilified in communities if
  young men are arrested and then diverted into
  programmes that are perceived to be a soft
  option.
• On the first day of this process the chair
  referred to such programmes as getting some air
  it is difficult for us as a community to
  attribute value to programmes that are often hard
  to measure as they are based on qualitative
  rather than quantitative action and their real
  benefits are often long term rather than
  immediate.
• Many sectors in our society

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Preamble

• The Bill should be supported by a communication
  campaign that is based on a scientific
  understanding of community perceptions and the
  concerns of service providers.
• Failing such support the Bill will encounter
  resistance and be much harder to implement.
• The communication campaign should introduce the
  concepts of restorative justice, allow for debate
  regarding the consequences of restorative versus
  punitive justice, examine the long term material
  and social costs of punitive justice, educate
  regarding diversion and expose diversion
  successes.

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Chapter One

• 2b (i) Greater thought should be given to street
  children in terms of fostering childrens sense
  of dignity and worth
• 2b (iv) There is no indication of how communities
  will be involved. This is an opportunity to
  define clear and practical roles for community,
  rather than falling into the common trap of
  demanding support and not providing guidance in
  terms of what support means. Is there a budget
  allocated anywhere for community involvement?
• 3 (i) (h) No indication of how children lacking
  in family support will have equal access.
• 3.(3) (c) Should add access to adequate
  sanitation and hygiene. (It is known that street
  children for instance are often dirty and smell
  bad. It is impossible to claim that their sense
  of dignity and worth, or their access to
  services, will be equal absent an opportunity to
  be clean.

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Chapter Three

• 7. (3) (iv) There should be an adult available to
  every child.
• 11. (1) (b) An appropriate adult should be
  appointed by the state. Failing this the child
  who has no such adult available is disadvantaged.
• 16. Release of child to place of safety. There is
  a generally acknowledged shortage of places of
  safety. This clause will again disadvantage the
  most disadvantaged children.
• It is noted that in certain sections there is
  reference to the childs legal representative
  28(3) the more disadvantaged the less likely a
  child will have representation of any kind
  concerns about equity.

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Chapter Four

• 21(2) An appropriate adult must attend the
  assessment of the child failing exemption
  according to 22(3).l
• Propose that 22(6)(b) should read If all
  reasonable efforts to locate a parent or an
  appropriate adult have failed, the probation
  officer must appoint an appropriate adult to
  attend the assessment in support of the child.
• All other sections regarding the presence or role
  of an appropriate adult should be read in this
  light.

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One Stop Centres

• An assessment of Stepping Stones One Stop Centre
  was undertaken at the end of 2001. The intention
  of the report was to provide management support
  in terms of understanding the infrastructure,
  capacity and resource requirement of such a
  centre and to measure this against its potential
  as a delivery mechanism for Child Justice.
• A series of semi-structured interviews to provide
  qualitative information
• Comparisons of views to achieve a balance between
  factual input and opinions based on own context
  and experiences.
• The findings were presented to the stakeholders
  and participants of Stepping Stones at two
  workshops in order to confirm the analysis and
  recommendations.
• Impact was assessed against
• Previously three different court buildings
• 13 police stations where children in conflict
  with the law were serviced

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One Stop Centres

• Stepping Stones has reduced
• transport time and costs
• chaos of finding a child and case in the system
• time taken to follow up and chase documentation
• incidence of children falling through the
  system.
• Success indicators
• centre (departmental relationships, co-ordination
• effectiveness and efficiency)
• benefits to children in conflict with the law
• (success rate, diversion, efficiency of
  service).
• Secondary impact of the services can be seen on
• the family, parents and the community

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One Stop Centres

• The inclusion of a secure care facility as part
  of the facilities of a one-stop centre would
  greatly enhance the provision of probationary and
  social development services, as well as
  facilitating the speedy and efficient process of
  children in conflict with the law through the
  system.
• In addition, no programme is currently available
  for youth that re-offend.
• Diversion services would be greatly enhanced if
  firstly, a reform school was available in the
  province.
• Secondly, a bridging programme was available for
  children to assist in coping with the diversion
  programmes.
• Thirdly, correctional supervision was included as
  part of the co-ordinated services of the centre
  facilities and services.

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One Stop Centres

• Psychological services,
• Trauma counselling and victim support,
• Remedial assessment and occupational therapy,
• Clinic services,
• Access to a doctor for confirmation of age
  assessments (the involvement of the Department of
  Home Affairs would assist further).
• SAPS need to include a Detective Unit to
  facilitate the speed of cases appearing before
  court. Currently detectives from all 13 police
  stations in the magisterial district are required
  to investigate cases and appear before court.
• The assistance of the Department of Education is
  required to assist in reintegrating children back
  to schools and to undertake crime prevention
  education and intervention programmes.

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One Stop Centres

• Components integrate functions and case
  management.
• Working relationships have been established over
  time and through respect for individuals.
• The members work together as a family towards a
  common vision, and recognise their individual
  growth (maturity, insights, assertiveness,
  competence and expertise in the field) over the
  past few years.
• Members are committed to their professions and
  demonstrate this through the service delivery,
  innovation, leadership and self-development. (But
  members feel that their departments do not
  support them adequately nor recognise their
  professionalism).
• Common values include compassion, patience,
  respect for rights of the child and a commitment
  to make a difference with children in conflict
  with the law.

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One Stop Centres

• Key infrastructure required for a One-Stop Child
  Justice Centre includes
• a facility for all four components to work
  together,
• appropriate design and layout of the facility,
• clarity of roles and responsibilities
  acknowledge the difficulty of integrating across
  departmental line functions and hierarchies
• guidelines protocols and service agreements,
• participatory management,
• clarity on centre resources (vehicle, computers
  etc) how to share,
• a data management system
• clear and transparent appointment processes.
• It is proposed that a facility is made available
  for correctional supervision to be included as
  part of the integrated services.

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Conclusion

• The task ahead is complex and difficult. It is
  vital that lessons learnt are mainstreamed into
  implementation
• The Bill is based on some sophisticated concepts
  and principles there are those, particularly at
  centres such as Stepping Stones, who understand
  and are already implementing the actions that
  flow from these principles. They should be
  regarded as role models and encouraged and
  motivated to continue their good work. (This
  requires careful and clever Human Resource
  management).
• We must ensure that the Bill does not suffer as a
  result of lack of understanding and change
  management. We cannot assume compliance at any
  level and there must be extensive support for
  entrenching both the principles and procedures of
  the Bill.
• Integrated approaches are obviously sensible but
  rarely work. We must enable clear leadership and
  minimise conflict of interest and duplication of
  effort.
• We must not underestimate the importance of
  community support, without which implementation
  will be even harder.