Prison overcrowding in the South African correctional services: a penological perspective

Abstract

Incarceration of offenders has been relied upon as the dominant sentence option through the years to address the objectives of punishment.

Research has shown that the above-mentioned approach does not match the current lifestyle anymore. Correctional centres (prisons) not only in South Africa, but across the board are faced with the same challenge.

This is of course not a problem of the Department of Correctional Services alone, but that of the entire justice system. It is therefore obligatory for Justice to join hands with society in accordance with the White Paper on Corrections in South Africa (2005:63-68).

Playing a major role in all above-mentioned bodies is Parliament, without which the whole justice system would not exist, let alone functioning.

The victims of crime would most probably not condone any soft approach towards treating offenders, worse with alleviating overpopulation by releasing inmates from correctional centres.

It is the researcher's submission that the effects of overpopulation coupled with inmate's human rights, as entrenched in the Constitution becomes the major driving force to address overcrowding in our correctional centres.