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South Africa: NICRO patents Home-grown Technology to Combat Prison Overcrowding |
| Source: |
SA - the Good News |
| Source Date: |
Thursday, July 18, 2013 |
| Focus: |
Electronic and Mobile Government, Citizen Engagement, Internet Governance
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| Country: |
South Africa |
| Created: |
Jul 18, 2013 |
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South African prisons are critically overcrowded, with recent statistics suggesting the population of 152,000 prisoners is approximately 130% over capacity. At least 45,000 of these prisoners, approximately 30%, are awaiting trial, each costing the taxpayer more than R9,800 per month (more than R1,1 billion a year).
NICRO Chief Executive Officer Soraya Solomon says the Government is facing a massive challenge to address the prison-overcrowding problem, particularly when a large number of low-risk awaiting-trial prisoners would be better served outside the penal system.
“For different and complex reasons South Africa is dealing with a burgeoning prison population that’s costing the country dearly, both economically and socially,” says Solomon.
“In our view a large number of people currently awaiting trial can be classed as low-risk offenders, and would be better served in a supportive, community-based rehabilitation program rather than the prison system,” she says.
“Many of these offenders, once incarcerated, are exposed to more severe criminal elements that impede their chances of rehabilitation, leading them down a path of far more serious crimes, particularly if they’re disconnected from their families, communities and places of worship.”
The South African Government recognises the value of rehabilitation outside the prison system, but few options for how best to implement a community-based remand program that actively prevents low-risk prisoners from re-offending have existed, until now.
Remand Revolution uses a mobile phone with customised software to track, monitor and communicate with offenders once they’re released into the custody of their families or community centres. It also includes an ankle bracelet tracking system, and a unique, portable alcohol monitoring device that offenders use to take spot-check breathalyser tests that are sent back to NICRO along with an instant photo of the offender.
“Our goals are closely aligned with those of the Department of Correctional Services: to reduce overcrowding, strengthen the remand detention system, find viable and practical alternatives to incarceration, improve the parole system, and most importantly, ensure the effective rehabilitation of offenders,” says Solomon.
“We now have accessible and affordable technology that provides a failsafe, secure and strictly monitored environment for low-risk offenders. It keeps them out of prisons – away from dangerous criminals – and replaces the high cost of incarceration with a much more manageable cost of rehabilitation.”
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South Africa: NICRO patents Home-grown Technology to Combat Prison Overcrowding The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders NICRO a non-government organisation NGO that provides remedial services to adults and children in conflict with the law has launched a revolutionary new technology that allows low-risk offenders to remain in their homes and communities instead of adding to South Africa’s overcrowded prison population NICRO’s locally developed and patented Remand Revolution system uses mobile phones to track and communicate with offenders or paroled prisoners in conjunction NICRO-managed programs designed to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders into their communities
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