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The Inter-sectoral Implementation of the Child Justice ActPresented to the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Development23 October 2013

KEY FOCUS AREAS

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•Purpose of the presentation

•Background and overview;

•Governance structures;

•Achievements on Key Priority Areas

•Limitations

•New Developments

Purpose of the Presentation

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To give a brief overview of the progress in the intersectoral implementation of the Child Justice Act, which reflects on the achievements & limitations recorded during the 3rd year of the implementation; and

To give a comparison analysis of intersectoral performance, mainly in the past 2 years of implementation

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW:

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The Child Justice Act, 2008 came into effect on 1 April 2010, mainly to introduce a child justice system that ensures that children are treated in a manner that takes account of their age, as required by section 28 of the Constitution.

The Act provides for special measures to divert children in conflict with the law from the mainstream of CJS to the child justice system that is capacitated to assist them to break from the cycle of crime so as to mature into law-abiding and productive citizens.

s96 (3) of the Act requires the Minister to table in Parliament the Annual Progress Reports received from:

Dept of Justice and Constitutional Development; National Prosecuting Authority; SAPS, Dept of Correctional Services; Dept of Social Services; Dept of Education; and Dept of Health

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES

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KEY PRIORITY AREAS OF REPORTING

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Building capacity in the sector; Ensuring assessments of children; Preliminary enquiries; Sentencing; Provision of Diversion and Alternative Sentencing

Services; Establishment of Child and Youth Care Centres; Establishment of One Stop Child Justice Centres; Resources and Budget; Public Education and Communication; Development of Necessary IT and IJS Systems to

support Information Management

Building Skills Capacity (All reporting stakeholders)

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7 278 personnel of all reporting stakeholders were trained in 2012/2013 to bring the total no of personnel trained since 2010

to 45 292

7 278 personnel of all reporting stakeholders were trained in 2012/2013 to bring the total no of personnel trained since 2010

to 45 292

Building Skills Capacity

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Department/ Institution No of Personnel Trained

2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 TOTAL

DoJ&CD: Magistrates, Clerks of Court, Prosecutors

962 695 517 2 174

SAPS 20 683 9 599 5 888 36 170

NPA 349 214 54 617

DCS 146 112 72 330

DSD 854 1 190 747 2 791

DBE 53 - - 53

LEGAL AID SA 1 302 1 855 - 3 157

TOTAL 24 349 13 665 7 278 45 292

Infrastructural Capacity

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INFRASTRUCTURE DOJ&CD and DSD

2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 TOTAL

DoJ&CD: One Stop Child Justice Centres (OSCJC)

Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth)= 01

Free State (Bloemfontein) = 01

North West (Klerksdorp) = 01

Nenira OSCJC Mangaung OSCJCMatlosana

OSCJC03

DSD: Child and Youth Care Facilities – s 29 (detention) & s 76 (sentence of compulsory residence)

Fully operational 28 - 28

Under construction - 02 02 (carried over)

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Bed Capacity - 3 272 2 100 2 100

Reduction in the bed capacity in Secure Care Facilities The Minimum Norms and Standards

requires each Secure Care to have a bed capacity of 60 to 120 beds, depending on the size of the infrastructure and the resource capacity. This is to avoid overcrowding. DSD has put mechanisms in place to ensure compliance with the Minimum Norms and Standards and this exercise resulted in the reduction of the bed capacity.

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Establishment of OSCJC Section 89 regulates the establishment of OSCJC. One (1) OSCJC was established during 2012/2013. Due to the lack of existing buildings that can be

converted into OSCJC, and other practical challenges, the Dept has initiated a process of conducting a viability study on the continued establishment of OSCJC’s.

On the 14 Oct 13, the OPS ISCCJ conducted a workshop to explore challenges on the intersectoral establishment and management of OSCJC’s, and drafted a baseline document for the viability study.

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Assessments of Children

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Assessments increased from 18 334 to 32 125 Assessments increased from 18 334 to 32 125

TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILD ASSESSMENTS

PERIOD: 2010/2011 TO 2012/2013

2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013

32 500 18 334 32 125

TOTAL= 82 959

Innovations between SAPS & DSD

There are some factors and corrective measures introduced by SAPS and DSD that contributed in the increased number of children assessed:

•No of charges against children decreased from 68 078 in 2011/12 to 57 721 in 2012/13;

• Local service agreements have been introduced between Police stations and Probation officers to outline operational commitments that expedites the management of children on a 24 hour basis;

•A Directory of Local Designated Probation Officers was developed by DSD, and made available to every local police station;

CONT: Innovations between SAPS & DSD

•An electronic information system is currently available which allows DSD to be informed via system-generated email of all children who should be assessed.

•However, efforts are in progress to improve this system by incorporating an acknowledgement functionality of the sent email to DSD. (DSD has to develop the system for the full solution via service oriented architecture)

Preliminary Inquiries

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PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES CONDUCTED DURING 2012/2013 NUMBER

Preliminary Inquiries conducted 25 517

Number of preliminary inquiries referred to the children’s court 3 856

Number of preliminary inquiries referred to child justice court for

trial

10 821

Preliminary Inquiries

conducted over 3

years

2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013

Preliminary Inquiries

conducted

14 471 17 822 25 517

Percentage increase

since 2010/2011

- 23% 43%

Referrals to the Children’s Courts

In terms of s50 of the Act the inquiry magistrate may stop the proceedings and order that the child be brought before a children’s court if it appears that the child is in need of care and protection or if the child is alleged to have committed a minor offence aimed at meeting the child’s basic needs for food and warmth.

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Legal Aid Services in Preliminary Inquiries

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Legal Aid services were offered in 15 295 of the 25 517 preliminary inquiries conducted in 2012/2013

Legal Aid services were offered in 15 295 of the 25 517 preliminary inquiries conducted in 2012/2013

Legal Aid Services The Act does not make it peremptory for children

to be legally represented during the preliminary inquiry.

However, Legal Aid SA provides legal aid services in all cases where it is deemed necessary for the child to be assisted at preliminary inquiry stage of the proceedings.

There are no dedicated practitioners to assist with preliminary inquiries yet.

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Diversions

Increase of 2 228 diversion cases in Year 3

Increase in the number of diversionsOne of the central features of the new criminal justice system established for children through the implementation of the Act, is the creation of the possibility of diverting matters involving children in conflict with the law away for the criminal justice system. An increase in the number of diversions is therefore an important step in achieving one of the overall aims of the Act.

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Summary of Accredited Diversion Service Providers and Programmes

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Sentencing: Objectives (s69) Ensure accountability for the harm caused; Promote an individualised response that

strikes a balance between: the circumstances of the child; the nature of the offence; the interests of society.

Promote reintegration of child into family & community

Provide guidance, supervision, treatment or services towards integration

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Sentences Imposed on Children Type of Sentence 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 TOTAL

Community-based

sentences

60 795 687 1 542

Restorative justice

sentences

137 405 508 1 050

Fines or alternatives to

fines

34 37 Fines= 34 149

Alt to fines= 44

Sub-total = 78

Correctional

supervision

804 302 179 1 285

Compulsory residence

in a child and youth

care centre

110 353 335 798

Postponement or

suspension of passing

of sentence

Not available yet Not available yet 296 296

Total of non-custodial

sentences

1 145 1 892 2 083 5 120

Imprisonment 536 94 98 72824

Sentences Imposed on Children

There is a growing achievement of the goals of the Act, which primarily promotes the imposition of non-custodial sentences instead of imprisonment sentences. Since 2010, a total number of 5 120 non-custodial sentences were imposed on children.

There has also been a significant drop in the number of children sentenced to imprisonment since 2010/2011 to 2012/2013 – from 536 to 98

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Public Education and Communication Initiatives Radio Broadcast Campaign – DoJ & CD in

partnership with NPA and SAPS. Information about the Act. Broadcasted on 65 radios stations.

NPA participated in a Special Assignment programme on TV – mainly focusing on diversions. The aim was to highlight to the public that diversion is not a soft option for child offenders.

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Public Education and Communication Initiatives In November 2012, another radio panel

discussion on the Child Justice Act was conducted where GCIS connected analysts with 8 radio stations. Listeners from all these stations were able to call in and have their questions answered.

Between October and November 2012, NPA staff members participated in the NPA/GCIS radio campaign coordinated by the Communications Unit, wherein radio station interviews were conducted covering different topics in the criminal justice system (CJS), one of which was the Act.

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Departmental IT & Integrated Information Justice System

Department Information System Purpose

DoJ&CD •ICMS Child Justice Has above 80 fields to capture the Dept’s & NPA data

DSD •Probation Case Management•Accreditation of Diversion System

Child assessments &Diversion accreditations

Legal Aid SA •Ad infinitum Capturing of cases logged & reports generated therefrom

SAPS •OPAM – enhancements to system currently being implemented

Capture the info of cases involving children under 10, details of referral

IJS Systems

SAPS-IJS-DoJ&CD/NPA

•Pre-Adjudication Docket Integration•Charge Sheet Notification•Postponement Date Integration

SAPS sent up to 90 000 Docket Ready Notifications to NPA (all cases)Postponement Date Notification

SAPS-IJS-LASA Legal Aid Request Notification Operational in 120 SAPS facilities

SAPS-IJS-DSD Arrest Notification (Probation Officers) Notifies probation officers of arrest of a child for assessment purposes.

DCS Admission and Release system

Community Corrections System

Capturing of warrants and other detention issuesCapturing of all those placed under non-custodial system

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KEY LIMITATIONS

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Department Limitation Corrective Measures

DoJ&CD No existing govt owned buildings suitable for conversion into OSCJC’s

• Viability study in a process of being conducted;

• Draft amendment of the NPF produced, but will be finalized as soon as the findings of the viability study are established;

• Draft Amendment of the National Guidelines will be finalized as soon as the viability study is completed.

DoH Serious shortage of psychiatrists & psychologists to determine child’s criminal capacity (s11); as a result the DoH relies on 54 private clinical psychologists & 32 private psychiatrists , who charge the DoJ&CD beyond policy rates

As an interim measure, DoJ&CD is in a process of securing additional funds for courts

DBE Not all Reform schools & Schools of industry have been transferred from DBE to DSD

Legislative amendments are required to allow the proposed transfers

KEY LIMITATIONS

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Department Limitation Corrective Measures

IJS The fully integrated electronic inter-sectoral data collection system is progressively developed

4 systems are in the process of being integrated into the IJS system

DCS Difficulties in providing formal education to Remand Detainee Children because almost 90% spend less than 6 months in detention and most children have never been to school

Determination of the model that can be utilized to ensure that education is provided

Amendments to the Act Amendments to the Act were included in

the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill B7 of 2013.

The Bill was approved by the Portfolio Committee on 2 October 2013. Some of the amendments gives effect to the Constitutional Court’s order in the matter Centre for Child Law v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and others 2009(2)SACR447(CC).

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THANK YOU