Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698938507265.pdf (Namibia)
MINISTRY OF SAFETY AND SECURITY VOTE 21 NAMmlAN CORRECTIO AL SERVICE 2013/2014 GET MOTIVATJI) .•••.•••.••• J.. ISTER -'-"....~S!Y.S;tb<yU'F6Nl~ "A""9\~"" c, l Sl~F TO THE NATIONAUA'"SSEMBLY - ~ --" 19 APRIL 2013 1.

INTRODUCTION Hon.

Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Honourable Members Allow me to congratulate the Honourable Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila for her continued good work in her capacity as the Minister of Finance.
We wish her with her dedicated team of staff, all the best in their endeavours to steer our economy through this delicate recovery period from the global economic crisis and other related economic disturbances.

Honourable Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee I would now like to take this opportunity to introduce Vote 21 of the Ministry of Safety and Security: The Namibian Correctional Service for your consideration.
Our Ministry is requesting a total budget of five hundred and eighty six million, six hundred and forty-seven thousand Namibia Dollars (N$586,647,000), of which four hundred and sixty-eight million, six hundred and forty-seven thousand Namibia Dollars (N$ 468,647,000) is for the Operational Budget and a hundred and eighteen million Namibia Dollars (N$ 118,000,000) is for the Development Budget.
Although we requested for an additional two hundred and twenty-four million, seven hundred and seventy-three thousand Namibia Dollars (N$ 224,773,000) for the 2013/2014 financial year, we received only sixty-three million, seven hundred and ninety one thousand Namibia Dollars (N$ 63,791,000) of which thirty five million, seven hundred and ninety one Page 1 of 12 thousand Namibia Dollars (N$ 35,791,000) is for the Operational Budget and twenty-eight million Namibia Dollars (N$28,000,000) is for the Development Budget and we are indeed grateful.
2.

PROGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET Honourable Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee At the beginning of the last Financial Year, I requested this August House to approve a sum of four hundred and forty-seven million, three hundred and sixty-nine thousand, Namibia dollars (N$ 447,369,000) for the Namibian Correctional Service which included the Operational and Development Budget.
For the 2012/13 financial year, the programmes of the Namibian Correctional Service were as follows: Safe Custody; Rehabilitation; Re-integration; and Coordination and Support.

In this light, I will briefly reflect on some achievements made in the implementation of the budget: 2.1 Safe Custody The Namibian Correctional Service has successfully managed to keep safe custody of offenders sent to prison.
In the period of 2012113, the monthly average number of offenders in our correctional facilities stood at approximately 4200 with the majority of offenders being at the ages of between 18 and 29.
At Windhoek Central Prison and Elizabeth Nepemba Correctional Facility where the Offender Risk Management Correctional Strategy is implemented, we continue to classify each offender in accordance to the risk they pose to themselves, other inmates, staff and the public and thereby assign them to a suitable level of security (i.e.

maximum, medium, low-medium or minimum) for placement.

Pege z or tz Classification of offender populations is one of the most important functions of any modem Correctional Agency.
It serves as a management tool to minimise the potential for institutional misbehaviour and violence; mitigates the probability of escape and directs resources to where they are most needed.

As a result of this approach, no major security incidents were reported in the Namibian Correctional Service facilities during the review period and escapes were reduced from ten (10) during the 2011112 period to two (2) in the 2012/13 period.
These offenders escaped while doing work outside our correctional facilities and they were both re-arrested on the same day.

Honourable Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Among other Capital Projects, the under-mentioned main projects are progressing as follows.
Farm Scott Open Prison Construction An amount of thirty four million, four hundred and eighty-six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six Namibia Dollars and ten cents (N$ 34,486,666.10) was spent on this project during the 2012/13 fmancial year.

The construction of the medium prison is ongoing and progressed to 80% of completion during the review period.

This project continues to employ 89 people on average.

We expect construction of this facility to be completed by September 2013.
NCS Training College Construction An amount of four hundred and fifty-eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-nine Namibia Dollars and sixty-three cents (N$ 458,889.63) was spent on this project during the 2012113 financial year.

The construction of the Training College was Page 3 of 12 completed.

This project employed offenders.

I am happy to state here that the College was officially inaugurated on the 27th of March 2013.
Official Accommodation Construction: Divundu Rehabilitation Centre An amount of one million, three hundred and sixty-three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-seven Namibia Dollars and thirty-seven cents (N$ 1,363,727.37) was spent on this project during the 2012/13 financial year.

The construction covers 20 bachelor's flats and 5 houses which had progressed to 80% of completion.
This project continues to employ mainly offenders and a private sub-contractor for the electrical works, which employs 4 workers.

Swakopmund Prison Renovation An amount of four million and sixty-five thousand, one hundred and fifty-three Namibia Dollars and seventy cents (N$ 4,065,153.70) was spent on this project during the 2012/13 financial year.

Renovations were completed.

This project employed 28 workers on average.


Windhoek Prison Unit Management Conversion An amount of ten million, nine hundred and ninety-three thousand, seven hundred and eighteen Namibia Dollars and fourteen cents (N$ 10,993,718.14) was spent on this project during the 2012113 financial year.

The construction is for a female prison and had progressed up to 50% of completion.

This project continues to employ 35 workers on average.
Hardap Prison Unit Management Conversion An amount of five million, four hundred and fifty-four thousand, two hundred and eighty-three Namibia Dollars (N$ 5,454,283.00) was spent on this project during the Page 4 of 12 2012/13 financial year.

Phase one consisting of the demarcation of three units and the programme facility was completed during the review period.

The project continues to employ 30 workers on average.
Divundu Prison Unit Management Conversion An amount of three hundred and ninety-one thousand, eight hundred and twenty Namibia Dollars and ninety-four cents (N$ 391,820.94) was spent on the documentation during the 2012113 financial year.

The documentation involves the design and cost estimateslbill of quantity and this project is now ready for tendering.

The overall rate of implementation recorded for these seven projects is 90.6%.
2.2 Rehabilitation The Namibian Correctional Service continues with its efforts in achieving successful rehabilitation of offenders.

In the period under review, major initiatives were undertaken to take-stock, review, and thereby improve the rehabilitation programmes to concretise the Offender Risk Management Correctional Strategy.
These include the comprehensive review of how the Offender Risk Management Correctional Strategy is being implemented at Windhoek Central Prison and Elizabeth Nepemba Correctional Facility to identify gaps and the subsequent establishment of teams to address these gaps.

In addition, training of Programme Officers and Case Management Officers was conducted by a Consultant.

Nine (9) Programme Officers were recruited for Windhoek Central Prison and Elizabeth Nepemba Correctional Facility.
Page 5 of 12 Honourable Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee We consider our Agriculture Production initiatives as significant contributors to the Rehabilitation of offenders, not only in terms of averting idleness of offenders, but most importantly imparting work skills and attitudes that are important for their livelihood after their release from prisons.
In this regard, our food production initiative at the Divundu Rehabilitation Centre in the Kavango Region continues to be the best provider particularly in maize and wheat production.

The Namibian Correctional Service continues in a sustainable way to supply maize meal and bread flour to all its institutions with some significant level of surplus.
We also take pride in the Farm Scott Open Prison in the Oshikoto Region which is a 5000 ha farm consisting of 31 grazing camps, 100 hectare fodder under dry land, and 40 hectare for irrigation pivots for fodder, I hectare is for fruit trees and 30 hectare is for yellow maize.

Our main production line at Farm Scott Open Prison however, is cattle and small stock and it currently provides 89% of red meat requirements to correctional facilities around the country.
Other on-going offender employment activities are de-bushing, dropper cutting, milling fodder, construction, fencing and maintenance workshops.

2.3 Re-integration Following the much appreciated promulgation of the Correctional Service Act, 2012 (Act No.
9 of 2012), we have engaged on a project to develop a Community Supervision Framework which is intended to pave the way and to operationalize its rage 6 of 12 provisions with regard to the re-integration programmes for offenders particularly those that are released on Parole and Remission.

It is commonly acknowledged that offenders face difficulties in re-entering society.
To increase the chances of safe and successful reintegration of offenders into the community, a Pre-Release Process which works towards the preparation for release of offenders who are approaching possible release was developed.
2.4 Staff development Honourable members, since the 2009/10 financial year, we have been reporting that a number of our staff are on the degree course in Criminal Justice (Correctional Management) and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Criminal Justice which the Namibian Correctional Service jointly developed with the Polytechnic of Namibia (PoN) and is fully funded by the Namibian Correctional Service.
This programme is running very well, and last year, the first eight (8) out of the eleven (11) officers who completed their studies successfully graduated and obtained their degrees in April last year.

Again today 19 April 2013, a total of eight (8) correctional officers are graduating.

For this academic year, nine (9) correctional officers are in their third year, another nine (9) in the second year and thirteen (13) in their first year.
Apart from the above Degree programme, we have another ten (10) correctional officers and staff members enrolled for various qualifications including Law, Public Relations, Public Administration, Psychology and General Nursing and Midwifery and Science in various Tertiary institutions nationally and internationally.

Another nine (9) correctional officers are enrolled at the Health Training Centres of the Ministry of Health and Social Services for Health Care Training course.
I'age 7 of 12 2.5 Health Care The Namibian Correctional Service continues with its sustained efforts to improve health in its institutions by partnering with key stakeholders who have been contributing significantly to the combating of serious diseases such as HIVIAIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and other diseases.

These stakeholders are Centre for Disease Control (CDC), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Global Fund (GF) through the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
The CDC continues to fund the salaries of Community Councillors who are providing the voluntary counselling and testing services in our institutions.

There are fifteen (15) HIVlAIDS Community Counsellors deployed in eleven (11) of the Namibian Correctional Service facilities.

These Community Counsellors are also providing education and awareness campaigns to our offenders.
The Namibian Global Fund Programme provided the Namibian Correctional Service with two staff members placed at our Headquarters running HIVIAIDS educational campaigns, awareness and training programmes on HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support targeting inmates and correctional officers.
The Global Fund allocated four million, two hundred thousand Namibia Dollars (N$ 4,200,000) for the period June 2010 to March 2013, of this amount, two million and twenty-nine thousand, three hundred and thirty-eight Namibia Dollars and five cents (N$ 2,029,338.05) was spent on the various programmes mentioned above, and an amount of two million, one hundred and fourty-five thousand, five hundred and fifty-four Namibia Dollars and sixty-seven cents (N$ 2,145,554.67) still remains for until June 20 13.The UNODC activities with the Namibian Correctional Service include facilitating consultative and planning meetings, training of both members and offenders in HIV/AIDS prevention, supporting the World AIDS Day commemoration in our institutions, Counselling and Testing for HIV, funding the attendance of the Namibian Correctional Service Page 8 of 12 mY/AIDS focal person to the African HfV in Prisons Partnership Network (AHPPN) steering committee meeting in Mauritius.
The UNODC also completed a comprehensive assessment on HIVIAIDS in our correctional facilities with a particular emphasis on the prevalence and mode of transmission in our correctional facilities.

We expect a report in this regard soon.

An amount of four hundred and fifteen thousand, eight hundred and ninety four Namibia Dollars (N$ 415,894) was spent on the above activities.
At this juncture, allow me Honourable members to express our gratitude to these critical social partners for their continued assistance.

3.

Challenges The challenges are many, but I selectively want to reflect on the following very few crucial ones: 3.1 Correctional Facilities: Our Correctional Facilities are dilapidated and not correctly placed in the country.

They are mostly located in the previously white dominated towns and cities.
Therefore some areas that are densely populated do not have correctional facilities.

For example Oluno Rehabilitation Centre currently services Oshana, Omusati, Ohangwena, Oshikoto Regions and to some extent Kavango and Caprivi Regions.

As a result, we often experience perpetual overcrowding at some of our facilities and devote much time and resources on transporting offenders to remote areas for courts and other activities.
Page 9 of \2 3.2 Security Equipment The need for appropriate security equipment such as communication devices, transport, standby power generators, fire-arms, handcuffs, straight-jackets and scanners is critical for the maintenance of security and order in a sensitive environment such as corrections.
Insufficient security equipment leaves us vulnerable to smuggling of contraband into our correctional facilities and open to riots, attacks by offenders and public, escapes, smuggling of dangerous articles into our facilities and many other vulnerabilities.

3.3Materials and Supplies for Offenders and Staff As parties to the United Nations and the African Union, we strife to live up to UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the African Charter on Human Rights.
This means we are expected to provide inmates with adequate food, water and electricity, clothing, open space, ventilation etc.

However, the inadequacy of funds does not allow us to provide these services as required and it often results in legal action by offenders.

Furthermore, our staff are expected to present themselves in a manner which portrays a professional image requiring them to dress in proper uniform.

However, this is also not often the case due to inadequate funds.
3.4Manpower The staff establishment of the Namibian Correctional Service is 4402, however only 1958 of these positions are filled while 2444 are vacant.

This presents a staff shortage of more than 55%.

We are unable to recruit as funds are not provided and as a result we are experiencing an acute shortage of staff.
Page 1001'12 The shortage of staff, particularly custodial staff responsible for security at facilities, is a serious security threat both to our facilities and the community at large because there is always the potential for escapes, riots and other serious incidents when staff are not enough.

4.

BUDGET ESTIMATES FOR THE YEAR 2012/2013 FINANCIAL YEAR Hon.
Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Honourable Members I would now like to take this opportunity to introduce Vote 21 of the Ministry Of Safety and Security: the Namibian Correctional Service for your consideration.
The total budget allocated for the 2013/14 financial year amounts to a sum of five hundred and eighty-six million, six hundred and forty-seven thousand Namibian dollars (N$ 586,647,000), of which four hundred and sixty-eight millions, six hundred and forty-seven thousand Namibian dollars (N$ 468,647,000) is for the Operational Budget and one hundred and eighteen millions Namibia dollars (N$ 118,000,000) is for the Development Budget.
The following four programmes have been identified to be implemented in the next Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

They are: 4.1 Programme one: Safe Custody and Rehabilitation An amount of five hundred and thirty-four million, four hundred and sixty-eight thousand, Namibia dollars (N$ 534,468,000) is allocated to Safe Custody and Rehabilitation.
Page 11ofl2 4.2 Programme two: Compliance and Control of Correctional Facilities An amount of thirty-four million, nine hundred and ninety three thousand Namibia dollars (N$34,993,OOO) is allocated to Compliance and Control of Correctional Facilities.

4.3 Programme three: Reintegration One million and eight hundred and sixteen thousand Namibia dollars (N$1,816,OOO) are allocated to Reintegration.
4.4 Programme four: Supervision and Support Services Fifteen million and three hundred and seventy-thousand Namibia dollars (N$15,370,OOO)are allocated to Supervision and Support Services.

CONCLUSION: Hon.
CONCLUSION: Hon.

Deputy Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Honourable Members In conclusion, I now have the pleasure of requesting this beloved August House to approve the sum of five hundred and eighty six million, six hundred and forty- seven thousand Namibia Dollars (N$S86,647,OOO)for the Namibian Correctional Service.

I THANK YOU!

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