Building a caring correctional system that truly belongs to all

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DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES
BRANCH CORRECTIONS
Building a caring correctional system that truly
belongs to all
Presentation by Department of Correctional
Services to the Portfolio Committee on
Correctional Services
Parliament Cape Town 09 June 2006
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PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

• To brief the Portfolio Committee on the fire
  incident, the investigation and the current
  processes flowing from the findings of the
  investigation.

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BACKGROUND

• The inmate was identified as Marilyn Syfers, 19
  years old according to the warrant of detention,
  serving a sentence of 22 months and 80 days for
  theft, house breaking and contempt of court.
• She was sentenced on 19 July 2005 at Swellendam
  and referred to Worcester Female Correctional
  Centre for incarceration.
• During August 2005 she was transferred to
  Pollsmoor Female Centre.

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• She is originally from Swellendam and was raised
  by her grandmother who is 82 years old.
• Her mother passed away when she was still very
  young.
• Her biological father is residing in Swellendam
  but never took responsibility for his daughter.
• No visits were received from the family.

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• The Head Female Correctional Centre through
  Community Corrections arranged telephonic
  communication for Marilyn Syfers with her
  grandmother who stayed in Swellendam.
• The late offender was participating in various
  rehabilitation programmes
• Athletics
• Soccer

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• Social work services
• Spiritual care
• After consultation with the family on 5 April
  2006 the grandmother indicated to management that
  financially she will not be able to carry the
  burial costs, as she is a pensioner.
• The Department have taken the responsibility for
  the burial cost.

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• BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE FEMALE CORRECTIONAL
  CENTRE
• The Female Correctional Centre has been declared
  a Centre of Excellence in the Western Cape Region
  during August 2004.
• There are 89 officials on the establishment of
  the Female Centre.
• On 4 April 2006 there were 309 offenders at the
  Female Centre.
• Pollsmoor management has declared the Female
  Centre as a smoke free Centre for both members
  and offenders.

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APPOINTMENT OF INVESTIGATION TEAM

• Appointment of investigation team 5 April 2006
• Terms of reference
• Investigation into the circumstances, adherence
  to policy, legislative prescripts and
  administrative functions that caused the incident
• Recommendations amongst others, shortcomings and
  preventative measures to prevent re-occurrence

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• SEQUENCE OF EVENTS AS PER FORMAL INVESTIGATION
• THE DAY OF 3 APRIL 2006
• The deceased offender Marilyn Syfers was
  incarcerated at the Female Centre, single cell,
  sharing with one other offender.
• On Monday 3 April 2006, deceased offender Marilyn
  Syfers was in the juvenile section having
  breakfast with other offenders.

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• After breakfast deceased offender refused to go
  into the cell demanding the attention of her case
  officer.
• She was informed that her case officer was
  attending a Frontline Management Course from 3
  April until 7 April 2006 but that another member
  (Case Management Supervisor) will attend to her
  request and needs.
• The offender still refused to cooperate. In the
  juvenile section further attempts were made by
  several officials to convince her to cooperate
  and go into her cell, but it appeared to be
  unsuccessful.

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• The offender was placed back into the cell with
  the assistance of three female officials.
• The offender then opened the taps, started
  breaking the windows and verbally abusing the
  members to the extent threatening physically
  harming officials.
• More members were called in to stabilize the
  situation. A member closed the taps and the
  offender, after instruction, cooperated with the
  members present.
• She was handcuffed and then taken to the acting
  Head of the Correctional Centre.

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• After the Acting Head heard both parties, she
  tried to persuade the offender to cooperate, but
  without success. The deceased offender continued
  with verbal abuse and threatened some of the
  officials present with physical harm.
• Based on the aggression, non-cooperation and the
  physical threats displayed to officials by the
  offender, the acting Head gave an instruction
  that the offender should be placed in the single
  cells (special care unit) and be mechanically
  restrained. (Section 30 and 31 of Correctional
  Services Act, Act 111 of 1998).

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• She was taken to the Special Care Unit where the
  instruction of the acting Head of Centre was
  executed. The acting Head of Centre gave a
  verbal instruction to the Centre Coordinator
  Care to monitor the behaviour of the offender for
  the duration of the dayshift. The acting Head of
  Centre was briefed later during the day that the
  non-cooperation and aggression of the offender
  continued. The offender refused to take all the
  toiletries and her meals.
• According to the acting Head of Centre, she gave
  a verbal instruction to the nightshift to monitor
  the offender. The Unit Manager left the outside
  door of the cell open for better observation.

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THE DAY OF 4 APRIL 2006
Based on the findings of the investigation, the
sequences of events were as follow

• The night shift personnel reported that there
  were no complaints with regard to the offenders
  safety and behaviour.
• During the morning briefing the acting Head
  briefed and instructed officials of the special
  care unit to continue monitoring the offender as
  the unit manager was on leave for the day.
• The acting Head of the Female Centre instructed
  that the offender continued to be kept in
  mechanical restraints.

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• According to the acting Head of Centre she
  visited the offender twice, but the behaviour of
  the offender was still the same.
• As the day progressed the offender bathed and
  exercised, but refused to take meals and only
  drank coffee.
• The inmate continued to be mechanically
  restrained as per instruction of the acting Head
  of the Female Centre.
• The offender was not visited by a medical
  official as they were not on duty.

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• By knock-off time, the member in charge of first
  watch (1600 2400) night shift, was not on
  duty yet. The other members booked on duty for
  first watch were in the Reception Office busy
  with the searching of new admissions.
• According to the acting Head of Centre, she
  instructed an official to remain behind, monitor
  the offender and carry this instruction over to
  the member in charge of night duty. The Acting
  Head of Centre then went off duty.

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• According to the acting Head of Centre, she met
  the first watch member in charge outside the
  perimeter gate and informed her that the standby
  member will give her further instructions.
• As indicated, were all first watch members on
  duty for the shift busy with searching 18 new
  admissions at the reception office, therefore
  leaving the sections unguarded.

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• It was during this time that another offender
  from the adjacent single cell passed tobacco and
  hondjie (tightly rolled-up toilet paper) to
  offender Marilyn Syfers which she used to set the
  cell alight.
• While the first watch members were busy at the
  reception office, they heard the shouting of
  offenders from the units, two officials ran to
  the single cells to find out what was wrong.

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• On arrival at the single cells they found the one
  cell burning and the whole unit was covered with
  smoke.
• Due to this, they were unable to have a clear
  idea what was happening and one official went to
  fetch the master key to open the cell while the
  other one was trying to extinguish the fire.
• When the smoke subsided, the inmate was already
  dead and the body position indicated that she was
  still chained to the grill.

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• The doctor was called who declared the offender
  dead.
• The matter was reported to the SAPS.

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INVESTIGATION INTO THE INCIDENT

• According to policy, investigations into
  unnatural deaths are conducted on four (4)
  levels, namely departmental investigation, SAPS,
  Post Mortem Inquiry and the Office of the
  Inspecting Judge.
• An investigation team was appointed on 5 April
  2006 by the acting Regional Commissioner and was
  led by a Senior Manager (Director).

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• The investigation report was completed on 7 April
  2006 and submitted to the acting Regional
  Commissioner on 8 April 2006.
• On Monday, 10 April 2006 the investigation was
  finalized and was handed to the Area Commissioner
  on 11 April 2006 to implement the decisions.

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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

• The main findings of the investigation indicated
• that
• the deceased offender was aggressive, not
  cooperating, damaged state property and verbally
  abused members to the extent of threatening to
  harm them physically.
• the non-adherence to the Correctional Services
  Act, Departmental policies and procedures
  contributed to the tragic death of the deceased
  offender.

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The following areas were inter alia highlighted

• Use of segregation (Section 30 of Act 111 of
  1998)
• Use of mechanical restraints (Section 31 of Act
  111 of 1998)
• Monitoring the well-being of the deceased
  offender
• Issuing and management of special instructions by
  management of the centre, in relation to the
  well-being of the deceased offender.

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ACTION STEPS (DECISIONS) EMANATING FROM THE
INVESTIGATION REPORT

• Two (2) members were suspended from duty as from
  25 April 2006.
• Disciplinary actions are taken against four
  members. An initiator and chairperson have
  already been appointed to handle the disciplinary
  cases.
• An investigation was launched into the
  non-availability of medical staff at the Centre
  on 3 and 4 April 2006. The investigation is still
  in progress.

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• Following the previous unfortunate incidents of
  fires at Pollsmoor Admission Centre during 2004,
  the National Logistics Directorate of the
  Department is still pursuing the procurement of
  non-flammable mattresses for all Correctional
  Centers.
• Seven (7) different types of foam mattresses
  samples were received and will be submitted to
  the SABS for flammability and toxicity testing.
  Based on the testing results and recommendations
  Management will decide on suitable foam
  mattresses to be utilized by the Department.

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• The Post-mortem report confirms the cause of
  death as due to burning.
• The SAPS investigation is still awaited.
• A copy of the investigation has been forwarded to
  the Offices of the Minister, National Head Office
  of the Department and the Inspecting Judge.

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OTHER REMEDIAL ACTIONS

• All Heads of Correctional Centers have been
  sensitized in writing to comply with the
  Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 regarding
  the clause of solitary confinement and
  segregation.
• A lock-up team has been activated on 8 May 2006
  to deal with searching and locking-up of late
  admissions from the courts, so as to not utilize
  members booked in sections for this task. All
  Heads of Correctional Centers were also
  sensitized in writing on the utilization of
  members working nightshift.

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• An Occupational Health and Safety inspection was
  conducted at the Female Correctional Center on 7
  April 2006. All fire extinguishers were found to
  be in working condition and the training of
  member on utilization of the equipment has been
  scheduled. Members at all divisions and
  institutions were identified to form part of the
  Emergency Action Committee (fire fighting,
  evacuation and fire marshals).
• The Area Commissioner of Pollsmoor is currently
  undertaking a feasibility study, as a matter of
  urgency, into installing smoke detectors, a
  sprinkler system and a fire alarm that is
  directly linked with the local fire department.

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• A medical doctor was appointed for Pollsmoor.
• A psychologist was appointed for the female
  Correctional Centre.
• There was a review of, in particular, the
  existing development and care programs and
  activities at the Female Centre, provided by both
  the Department and a number of NGOs. In this,
  there was a clear commitment to the continuation
  and extension, of the following existing programs
  / activities and the involvement of NGOs in
  providing the following programs

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• Training people with dogs as well as cats
• Turning point
• People caring for pregnant ladies
• Prison Hope Ministry for church service and
  counseling
• Gamblers anonymous for counseling
• Prison Broad Casting Network training inmates
  on radio broadcasting
• CRED is for creative writing and life skills
• NICRO also for life skills
• Candle light for candle making

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• Life choices for life skills special for the
• unsentenced juveniles
• Beauty for ashes is for HIV / Aids and
• terminal ill people
• Offender Rehabilitation Path implementation
• There is a hair salon where the inmates are
• trained with skills
• Inmates are also trained on athletics, soccer
• and rugby
• Laundry
• Trained at workshops / textiles
• Child minder

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• The members involved were attended to by the
  psychologist currently doing community service at
  Pollsmoor.

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Thank you Building a caring correctional
system that truly belongs to all