The farce that is the Department of Correctional Services

Kudos to Justice Minister Michael Masutha for referring Oscar Pistorius’ parole back to the review board for clarification and process authenticity, albeit only after political pressure. It emerged that at the time of the decision to release him on parole, he had only served six of the mandatory 10 months (1/6^th of the full sentence) BEFORE a decision is made to grant parole. This is apparently the normal order of things on most parole boards across South Africa’s Correctional Services institutions. The standard (but flawed) process is that the review boards unanimously grants parole to a prisoner, without verifying all the details of the prisoner’s sentence, and other extenuating circumstances. In other words, gross incompetence from officials in the Parole Review Boards, hence the reason why violent criminals are released prematurely and without merit.

It’s also heart-warming to know that his parole was vehemently opposed by various women groups around South Africa, including the ANC Woman’s league, by protesting the release of a convicted woman abuser, during woman’s month; especially given that Pistorius did not even serve the mandatory 1/6^th of his sentence. Agreeably, this negates the value of recognising the abuse of woman and children in the month of August and giving the ideal little or no power in the ongoing fight against the abuse of women and children.

Coupled with the incompetence and insensitivity of prison officials highlighted by these various groups, the matter of the NPA who appealed the judgement and subsequent sentence from the case was filed and is to be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal in November. With this being a circumstance of the case, the parole board conveniently ignored it and wanted Pistorius “out of prison as soon as possible”.

The treatment of Pistorius during his short term in prison is similar to the treatment of a sick patient in a hospital ward (although he did feign illness). He is kept in a separate cell of his own. Every request he made was subserviently carried out, and his needs were cared for above that of a normal prisoner; thus not only does he get the best lawyers to defend his case, but when found guilty of a serious crime, he still gets the best treatment in prison, regardless of the gravity of the crime he committed.  The reasons given for his special treatment is that he may be mistreated and abused in a crowded cell, with his person violated! If your average Joe committed the same crime but had different social and financial circumstances, he would be thrown with the wolves. But, because Pistorius is a “high profile prisoner”, he gets special treatment and care.

As far as I’m aware, if you are a convicted criminal, most of your Constitutional rights are revoked, and you become just a statistic and a member of the prison population of South Africa. There should be no discriminating or differentiating between prisoners convicted of the same or similar crimes. The realisation that “South Africa is the most unequal society in the world” does not stop in our free society, but is extended to the society of the criminally convicted as well. In South Africa money not only buys you wealth and prosperity but it also buys you a comfortable life in prison when convicted of any crime!