DA CALLS FOR REVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING

Executive summary

This discussion document explores the issue of alternative sentencing, with a view to examining what is currently being done and what can be improved with the use of alternative sentencing options.

The document explores the current state of affairs and makes recommendations about how alternative sentencing options can be better utilised to improve rehabilitation and reintegration prospects for all inmates through the reduction of prison overcrowding and to provide more appropriate sentences for non-violent offenders.

The DA argues that if incarceration has a purpose, it must be to correct offending behaviour and
to rehabilitate offenders.  However, the levels of overcrowding and under resourcing make the efficacy of these efforts dubious. As recently as 13 November 2007, the National Commissioner of Correctional Services admitted to the Portfolio Committee that imprisonment did not really lead to rehabilitation and, indeed, may lead to further criminalisation of inmates.

Alternative sentencing can produce benefits to society that custodial sentences cannot, if used correctly. There must be a harsh and unpleasant sanction or genuine punishment attached to the alternative sentence, in addition to proper supervision of offenders and management of the alternative sentencing programmes.

Alternative sentencing places the onus on the perpetrators to make real amends and to pay back in a visible way the society they have harmed. This leads to a sense of personal responsibility which is underscored by the fact that offenders have made choices with consequences and are not passive victims of circumstance. Personal responsibility is one of the key themes of the DA’s Open Opportunity Society.