Sun May 19 18:33:33 SAST 2013
Sun May 19 18:33:33 SAST 2013

Young inmates need support

Aug 31, 2012 | Sapa | 4 comments

CORRECTIONAL Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele yesterday called on mothers to lend support to the more than 53000 young inmates in prisons across the country.

HELP: Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele

"We call on mothers in particular to help us focus on the many young inmates who happen to be young black men," he said in a statement marking the end of Women's Month.

Ndebele said crime was the result of failures in the societies children grew up in.

"The fact that these children, as young as 17, have committed serious crimes should make society question where we have failed in protecting them from a life of crime.

"The average offender is a young substance abuser who has dropped out of school, is functionally illiterate and, more often, homeless. For most of them the only family they know are the other prisoners and the only parents they know are the system of corrections."

Comments

Sun May 19 18:33:34 SAST 2013 ::
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Aug 31, 2012

RobinH

With respect, Sir, what we really need is a far more court system so that people can be brought to trial in less than a few years. Some of these youths, I believe (A lot actually) have been awaiting trial for more than a year. No wonder the prisons have problems.
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Aug 31, 2012

sabza007

We did not sent them to rape,kill,hijack and so forth. I grew up poor and I never though of turning into crime for survival. What does rape and murder has to do with being poor???

You fucked up transport system and now you want to mess up correctional services. Since you took over you are sympathetic to inmates. That worries a lot of us.
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Aug 31, 2012

candilious

@sabza007-Cant agree more with you.Stupidy at its best.............
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Sep 1, 2012

skwamasamabele

If the President's Office introduce a National Service system to deal with juvenile crime. I dont advocate children spending time in prison doing nothing and learning to harden their attitudes upon release. A National Service system, not necessarily conscription, but compulsory volunteering (using volunteering very loosely) like recycling, street-sweeping, working in old age homes, compulsory apprenticeships schemes, tree planting, dredging and cleaning rivers and streams and clearing squatter camps. Also, they can be trained to become border guards
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