Social Crime Prevention and Support
Programme dealing with the provision of services to children at risk or in conflict with the law Aims at:
- Reducing the rate of children and youth committing crime in the Province.
- Reducing the number of children awaiting trial and dying in police cells / correctional facilities.
This is done because South Africa is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (to mention but a few) which seek to protect children who are suspected to be offenders from torture and abuse even by organs of state. These have been put in place to prevent children arrested for crimes that they are alleged to have committed and kept in police cells for a long period without finalization of their cases, tortured sometimes fatally, not given fair trial in court, appearing in court without legal representation.
Services are provided in terms of new legislation, the Child Justice Act No. 75 of 2008, the Children’s Act No. 38 of 2005 in the form of:
- Prevention programmes – where children and youth are empowered with information about the consequences of crime and alternatives to make better choices in life through awareness campaigns and life skills programmes.
- Statutory services – where they are assessed by probation officers and referred to diversion programmes in order to assist them with more intensified and need based programs to address the causes of criminal behavior.
- Statutory services rendered to children include inter alia assessment, diversion, Home Based Supervision, correctional supervision, and After Care Services.
- Child and Youth Care Facilities – children can be placed in these facilities while waiting for their cases to be finalized. Secure Care Centers are used to keep children awaiting trial to avoid keeping them in police cells and prisons.Mpumalanga Province has only one Secure Care Centre known as Hendrina Secure Care Center. In other cases children are sentenced to spend some time in secure care facilities to attend programs for development and empowerment.
- Services are also provided to adults in conflict with the law in terms of . the Criminal Procedure Act No. 51 of 1977, where probation officers are requested by court to compile pre-sentence reports to assist the court to make the most suitable decision in sentencing an accused person. Adults are also sentenced to Correctional Supervision under the supervision of a probation officer or a Correctional Officer.