ConCourt ruling of the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services

Dear Cape Town

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes Friday’s Constitutional Court judgment which confirmed the Western Cape High Court’s ruling that sections 88A(1)(b), 88A(4) and 91 of the Correctional Services Act were constitutionally invalid. These sections are among those that regulate the relationship between the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).

The Inspecting Judge is a vital institution that ensures that abuses and corruption do not occur in the DCS. His or her office needs to be informed about unnatural deaths in prison, prisoners that are placed in isolation, and the use of mechanical restraints. In addition, offenders may register complaints with the JICS’s Correctional Centre Visitors.

At the moment, the budget for the JICS is part of the DCS’s budget and JICS must account for money spent to the National Commissioner for Correctional Services. The CEO of JICS is also effectively answerable to the National Commissioner and not the Inspecting Judge, as the law currently stands.

Under these circumstances, it is very difficult if not impossible for JICS to perform its functions without fear or favour and to be independent if it is reliant for funding on the very institution it oversees, and when its administrative head reports to the National Commissioner. The potential for conflicts of interests are obvious.

This judgment also has implications for similar offices in other parts of the State that are not Chapter 9 institutions but which assist with oversight over government, such as the Military Ombud and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID). The reporting lines of JICS and these other institutions need to be directly to Parliament, rather than to a Minister or a National Commissioner.

We call on the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services to process the necessary amendments to the Correctional Services Act with all convenient haste. We do not want to find ourselves in the situation where, as is the case with an amendment to the Act ordered by the Constitutional Court relating to the minimum time to be served by offenders sentenced to life imprisonment, we are chasing the deadline imposed by the Court.

Regards

James Selfe MP
DA Shadow Minister of Correctional Services