Incarceration alternative

She added that it is the intention of the department to draw up proposals to present to the Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster on the use of electronic monitoring as part of alternative sentencing for minor offences.

This will ensure that only those who have committed serious offences serve a custodial sentence. We have always believed that overcrowding impacts on the ability of the department to provide effective rehabilitation.”

The pilot will last for 12 months, at a cost of R6.8 million. Each inmate will receive a bracelet that is connected to a satellite, allowing correctional officers to monitor where these inmates are at all times. If the bracelets are tampered with, they set off an alarm.

Democratic Alliance correctional services shadow minister James Selfe previously said people are incarcerated at a cost of R200 a day, and now they can be let out into the community at very little cost.

IT progress

The minister said the department has significantly reduced the number of consultants working in IT, from 156 at the end of the 2010/11 financial year, to about 45 consultants at the end of 2011/12.

“The consultants are being replaced through the filling of permanent IT technical posts. I am pleased to announce that the delivery on the strategy that we have developed to turn around DCS IT systems has started.”

The DCS has received qualified audits for the past seven years and, in October, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee largely attributed this to the IT unit in the department.

The department's annual report for 2010/11 indicates that it had been granted R270 million for computer services and R1.1 billion for consultancy fees. The committee said this needs to end, because if the entire DCS is run by consultants, there is a political rather than an administrative problem.

Network infrastructure renewal has started with the implementation of a virtual private network to improve systems security and connectivity.

Mapisa-Nqakula added that, based on this platform, the review and implementation of the Master Information Systems Plan will be based on a thorough assessment of the information needs of the department and will embed an integrated technology strategy in DCS.

The department has an action plan to get a clean audit by 2013/14. “A critical enabler of this, however, is putting the IT infrastructure and the business systems of the department onto a solid footing.”

Security focus

The minister also said the department is in a process to evaluate its current technology security systems, which include access control systems, surveillance systems, alarm systems, and fencing systems, to ensure alignment with the department's security challenges and technology strategy.

“This process will direct the management, maintenance and upgrading of existing systems, as well as implementation of new systems.”

A contract has been awarded for the installation of security fences with CCTV cameras and detection systems at 27 correctional facilities.

“We are also in the process for the procurement of a service provider for the upgrading, maintenance and management of the existing access control system for DCS. [The] access control and fencing virtual private network that was run and controlled by external service providers has been taken over by the department,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.