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Court backlogs 'can be reduced'
22/01/2008 16:41 - (SA)
Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal pilot project - proven to drastically reduce court backlogs and overcrowding in prisons - may be rolled out countrywide, if the government comes to the table with funding, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
The department's regional head Bridgette Tshabalala was speaking in Phoenix, north of Durban during a presentation of findings of the joint 18 month-long Justice and Restoration Project (JARP) which was initiated in September 2006.
Its pilot project was started in Phoenix and was a joint effort by NGO Khulisa, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Justice department and other bodies.
"We are all aware of the challenges in the criminal justice system - the overcrowding and the court backlogs - and this project shows that they can be reduced," she said.
Tshabalala pointed out that many people thought that the criminal justice system favoured the perpetrators.
"And a convicted criminal admitted to me that they do get five-star treatment, they are treated when they are sick and they have access to anti- retrovirals in prison ... how many victims have those opportunities?" she asked.
The research and findings by Professor Herman Conradie of the University of South Africa and Hema Hargovan of the University of KwaZulu-Natal show that court backlogs dropped drastically within a five month period of the use of JARP.
The court roll at the Phoenix Magistrate Court between September 2006 to March 2007 stood at 5 567 cases and between April and August 2007, this dropped to 2 748 cases, more than half the usual load.
Simple system
Conradie said the projected court roll using JARP after 12 months showed an 84% drop in backlogs.
He said the Jarp system was simple - instead of going to court, the offender and victim were given an option to carry out restorative justice (RJ) - a victim and offender were brought together in meetings with a trained mediator.
"The mediator prepares both the victim and offender to speak about the crime and give each other options to solve the problem," he said.
"An apology is offered and a sincere admission of guilt is made," explained Conradie.
The offender then paid back what he/she had stolen, or provided services to the victim as compensation, or performed community service.
Conradie said the pilot project in Phoenix showed that 37% of the criminal cases involved family members.
The crimes included domestic violence, common assault, assault to do grievous bodily harm, theft, hijackings and petty crimes.
The research identified anger, frustration, provocation, and dealing with unemployment as reasons behind the offenders crimes.
Launched soon
"But, we are happy as 95% of the victims were satisfied with the outcome," he said.
Conradie added that the project would soon be launched in schools, businesses and other provinces.
Hema Hargovan, a researcher from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said at the inception of the project, 20 mediators had been trained and 11 had now qualified.
Hargovan said domestic violence cases were also "a bit problematic" because there were various issues the court had to deal with before referring the matter to JARP.
Since its inception, at least 500 cases had been referred to JARP by the Phoenix court.
Hargovan found that the majority of the cases at the Phoenix Court were common assault cases.
"We also found that 67.1% of victims managed to forgive the offender and there after move on with their life," she said
Only 1.2% of victims wanted the offender imprisoned.
Hargovan said it was also discovered that 81.2% of offenders had a positive change in their behaviour after JARP as they went for drug/alcohol rehabilitation.
'Concerned about backlash'
Sagren Naidoo, the NPA public prosecutor for KZN, said: "Before RJ, we did not worry about what victims did after court...but after this 2020 JARP strategy, we had to rethink the project."
Naidoo said although it was a difficult transition, there were a few concerns about implementing it on a broader scale.
"We were a bit scared and concerned about community backlash but today, we are making history in KZN," he said.
He said the NPA supported the project 100% and was looking at the possibility of a roll out countrywide, depending on funding.
- SAPA
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