The Bureau is helping government create innovations that meet this need. Already, my department has taken control of one of these projects, Pretrial Services, based on its past success and our confidence in its future. One legacy of apartheid is that many young South Africans do not have the skills to reform the criminal justice system, and opportunities to acquire these skills are limited. Through its demonstration projects, the Bureau is cultivating a group of young South Africans who will be qualified to move into positions of leadership throughout government. The first project planners completed two-year terms with the Bureau in 1999, and now serve in the government and the criminal justice system.
More planners continue to learn firsthand how the criminal justice system can be improved.
I am happy to be working for an organization with a vision for change. The Bureau encourages me to help build our criminal justice system and improve its image in the eyes of society. Prisons are overcrowded partly because many petty offenders, unable to pay bail, are detained for months. Meanwhile, some dangerous people are released into the community, where they can intimidate witnesses and commit more crimes. To address these problems, the Bureau focused its first demonstration project on pretrial services, which protect both the right to bail and the safety of witnesses.