1. Institute for Security Studies
Criminal justice monitoring service
Review of criminal justice performance
Welcome to LAUNCH of service that ISS will be providing

2. The CJM service aims to:
Simplify crime information for easy access & understanding
Look beyond crime statistics to performance of criminal justice system
Consider the context: budgets, capacity & workload
Develop indicators of capacity, workload & performance
Assist in improving operations
Access: ISS website CJM button from April; regular briefings, seminars, pubs
Understanding:
crime not easy to understand at best of times; many diff types; some up some down - but never sure what it all means. Moratorium added to confusion. Crime Index being developed - like BCI - weight series of crimes - arrive at single measure that can be tracked over time.
Only what need to know at a glance rather than all at once approach - more in depth info always available. Website key.
Beyond crime stats: too obsessed with the stats; are NB but don’t tell all need to know about crime; to understand crime. Stats don’t reflect perf of police, courts etc. Are one indicator - what people & politicians want - but to be fair to CJS - and to find right solutions, need to move beyond just crime stats.
Perf context: can review this properly & seek realistic solutions ONLY if consider what police, pros & prison officials have been given to do their jobs; the political direction etc.
Assist CJS: provide service to CJS - benchmarks, realistic perf indicators, input for strategic planning, PFMA, service to public - Batho Pele
Concise picture: of the whole CJS - rarely done - and NB because one impacts on other - one’s indicator of workload is another’s performance (awaiting trial = prisons workload; courts’ performance)
Aimed at: public, media, government, donors, research community.

3. Briefing outline Overview of latest crime trends and CJS budgets
Review of performance of the criminal justice system: police, courts & prisons

4. Number of crimes recorded, 1994/95 - 2001/02

5. % change in selected crimes recorded, 2001/02

6. Crime rates in the provinces, 2000/01 - 2001/02

7. How are the police, courts and prisons performing?
What was promised in 2001/02?
What budget did the department get?
What resources were available?
What workload was the department facing?
How did the department perform?
Issues to watch in 2003
Covering lot of material on NB depts - only main issues covered here - with focus on performance
Lot of performance indicators for one department that are affected by another department’s activities
Sources include: parliamentary speeches, budget votes, annual reports, auditor-general’s reports

8. How much money did the CJS get to do the job? [Rbn]

9. How much money did the CJS? (% of national budget)

10. ISS Criminal justice monitoring service
Department of Safety and Security

11. What was promised? Reduce recorded crime
Specifically, by end 2003, to ‘stabilise’ recorded crime in 145 station areas producing 50% of South Africa’s crime (Operation Crackdown)
It’s hard to say - there is no document that says: we estimate there are x number of criminals in SA, and we have x number of personnel hours so we will arrest x number of people in these crime categories per year.” Part of the reason for this is the shift to and emphasis on crime prevention rather than so called “reactive policing”, a good idea that I think has been somewhat confused. How do you measure all the crimes that never took place? It becomes like Outcomes Based Education - the indicators of success become so muddy that no one is sure if anything is accomplished.
The most obvious indicator of crime prevention is a reduction in the number of crimes recorded by the police, but, as I will discuss later, this is not a very good indicator of police performance because the police cannot directly control it.
There is no single document which spells out the current administration’s goals and strategy, but in all of his statements, the Minister promised this year what he has always promised - to stop crime.
But, as I will discuss later, I do not believe that this a promise that he can keep, and I think he should focus on areas more within his control.
The SAPS is engaged in a range of crime fighting activities, as well as plenty of work that is only peripherally related to the task of crime prevention, but the Minister’s primary focus has been on “Operation Crackdown”, particularly its focus on large scale operations in the 145 station areas that produce half of South Africa’s crime.
He has also, at various times, vowed to combat certain “issues du jour”, but his response is generally along Crackdown lines - dump a lot of resources on specific crime problems or hot spots. This is reactive policing at its best.

12. How much money did S&S get to do the job?

13. What resources were available?
As of January 2003, 129,722 members, of which about:
80,000 uniformed (62%)
22,000 detectives (17%)
27,000 civilians (21%)
One sworn cop for every 439 South Africans
Plans to increase with 40,500 by 2005 including replacing attrition:
About 18,000 cops trained per year
One cop for every 373 citizens
The total service comprises just over members, with about of these being sworn police staff, both uniformed and detectives.
This means there is presently one sworn member for every 424 South Africans, which, as we will see, is not a bad ratio.
Just over one vehicle is available to every four members, which is actually adequate when you consider that less than a quarter of the operative staff is on the streets at any given time, with another quarter and served on the alternate shift, and the other half being on a day off.

14. Police per 100,000 population

15. Number of sworn SAPS members and civilians

16. What workload was the department facing?
About 2.5 million crimes recorded
31 recorded crimes per uniformed member per year, or about one every eight working days
115 recorded crimes per detective per year, or about one every other work day
There were about 2.5 million crimes reported in 2000, and we expect the number to be similar in If you figure that we have about sworn police members, then this means that there are about 25 crimes per member per year, or one crime every 10 days. Not a lot, and this figure does not include the Scorpions, the Metro police, the military staff that has been seconded to Crackdown, or the civilians.
Now, obviously, not ever sworn member is directly involved in dealing with crime, but if you consider that we have over civilian staff to deal with administration, we could, in theory, field this entire component in uniform. In practice, some of these members are on the street, some are detectives, and quite a few are involved in other functions. Dividing them simply into uniformed and detective staff, we still find a rather light workload. The problem, then, is not gross numbers, even in light of our present crime situation. It is the way these numbers are used and supervised.

17. Comment on the numbers issue
Less a matter of raw numbers than distribution and training
Reduction in academy time is worrying
Need to ensure that new recruits are mentored

18. What was the strategy? 2000-2003 Strategic Plan
Organised crime
Serious and violent crime
Crimes against women and children
Service delivery
National Crime Combating Strategy
Organised Crime
Serious & violent crime (‘geographic approach’)
The strategic plan prioritised these four areas. Organised crime includes guns, drugs, vehicular crime, commercial crime, and corruption; serious and violent crime includes murders, armed robberies, heists, and hijackings; crime against women and children are not specified, but surely include rape, child abuse, kidnapping, and abduction. Between these crimes, 18 of the 28 crimes tracked by the police are covered, which means they have basically prioritised everything except burglary and theft.
The National Crime Combating strategy emphasises just two of these four areas: organised crime and violent crime. What we have seen is a special emphasis on the geographic approach to fighting serious crime, which is known as “Operation Crackdown”.

19. How did they perform? (Organised crime)
‘21 undercover operations conducted, 230 syndicates exposed & 85 syndicate leaders prosecuted’
Compare: 54 ops, 388 syndicates, 233 leaders in 2000/2001
2,887 drug cases disposed of, 34% conviction rate; drug value down from 1.4 in 2000/01 to 1.1 in 2001/02
Lots of arrests and seizures

20. How did they perform? (Serious and violent crime)
Murder has been coming down since 1994
Crime rates in 145 stations?
Huge rise in cases to court
Quality of arrests?
Consequences for CJS?

21. How did they perform? (Crimes against women & children)
‘Less policeable’
No separate indicators
No anti-rape strategy
FCS:
32,518 dockets for 727 members (about 50 dockets apiece)
2,490 convictions (8% conviction rate)
Almost 3.5 convictions per detective

22. How did they perform? (Service delivery)
No ongoing measures
ISS 2000 study gave good results
Deaths of suspects are down 13% between 2000/01 & 2000/02
Criminal offences down 4%
Misconduct allegations steady

23. Issues to watch Training
Sector policing & the deployment of new recruits
Resolution 7 and detective restructuring
AFIS and IJS?
Implementation of Firearms, Domestic Violence, Child Justice, and Sexual Offences Acts

24. ISS Criminal justice monitoring service
Department of Justice
and Constitutional Development
National Prosecuting Authority

25. What was promised in 2001/02? Decrease case backlog in courts
Reduce average length of trials
Increase number of finalised trials
Increase number of court hours
Increase number of completed asset forfeiture cases
Increase satisfaction of court users

26. What budget did the department get for 2002/03?
R4.3 bn, or 14% of criminal justice system budget
Increase of 17%, compared to 2001/02 budget
31% increase for NPA
30% increase for Scorpions
50% of budget allocated to personnel-related expenditure (down from 78% in 1996/97)

27. What workload was the department facing?
26% increase in number of case referrals between ; and 47% increase in
Uncompleted cases: 182,000 end 2000 & 2001, and 200,000 end 2002
358,000 prosecutions in 2001, and 403,000 in 2002 (12 % increase)
9,900 diversions during 2002

28. How did the department perform?
About a third of serious cases referred to court result in a conviction
Between 2001/02 cases referred to court increased by 47%, prosecutions by 12%
Increase in number of finalised cases, but also in outstanding cases
Increase in period average awaiting trial prisoner is incarcerated
Define conviction rate
Withdrawals?
Order positives and negatives

29. Cases resulting in a conviction as a proportion of cases referred to court, 2000

30. Cases processed by the prosecution service, 1996-2002

31. Average period awaiting trial prisoners incarcerated, 1996-2002

32. No. of cases finalised with a verdict & outstanding cases, 1999-2002

33. Summary of department’s performance
Significant increase in finalised cases, but average court finalising too few cases with a verdict
Number of cases withdrawn by prosecution stabilising
Slight increase in outstanding cases - would be worse without Additional and Saturday courts
Courts remain a bottleneck in the criminal justice process --> increase in awaiting trial period

34. Issues to watch in 2003 Child Justice legislation & diversion
Progress of Scorpions
Roll out of Legal Aid system
Effectiveness of plea bargaining
Case backlogs in ‘Crackdown’ areas
Implementation of IJS-related technology systems
Appointment of maintenance investigators

35. ISS Criminal justice monitoring service
Department of Correctional Services
Introduction
The high levels of crime have necessitated tougher measures. The SAPS strategy is to have perpetrators arrested, as a result there has been more arrests. In the justice department the emphasis is on increasing convictions but there is little thinking on the what impact this has on prisons. There is no doubt that that there is no space in prisons but unless a balance is struck between imprisonment and rehabilitation and restorative approach, we will never have enough space.

36. What was promised in 2001/2? Focus on rehabilitation
Reduce overcrowding
New prisons - Unit Management
Community corrections, parole
Good governance - combat corruption
White Paper process
HIV/Aids policy 2002
Rehab - key departmental objective
- aimed at reducing recidivism rate

37. How much money did the department get in 2002/03?

38. What resources were available?
241 prisons
2 privately run prisons
8 facilities for women
13 for youth
72 for men and women
14 temporarily closed
132 for men
Designed to hold 110,000 inmates
33,475 corrections officials in 2002

39. Number of DCS personnel and prisoners, 1994-2003

40. Number of DCS personnel and prisoners, 1994-2003

41. Number of DCS personnel and prisoners, 1994-2003

42. Ratio of prisoners to corrections officials

43. What workload was the department facing?
185,000 inmates in prisons designed to hold 110,000 = 70% overcrowding
Unsentenced prisoners increased by 134% between
Children (<18 years) in prison increased since 1995
Deaths in prison due to natural causes increased by 600% between 1995 and 2001
ATPs are labour intensive in that there is a high turn over, not permitted to take part in various activities, cannot be released on community corrections. They are also potentially dangerous as a result of the uncertainty of their fate - try to escape.
Juveniles: burden of caring for juveniles is greater than adults - particularly since most are awaiting trial which means they are likely to be held in adult prisons rather than juvenile facilities.
Natural Deaths in prison due to natural causes - often sick people require medical attention that will have implications on resources and management.

44. Performance indicators
Number of prisoners released on community corrections
Exposing corruption
Existence of Independent Prison Visitors
Escapes from custody
Assaults & unnatural deaths in prison
An increase over time of people released on community corrections would be a good indicator.
Since xx the number of people charged for corruption is. This is an icrease of xx%
JI’s - the appointment is a sign of the departments’ commitment to improving conditions.
There has been a noteable increase in escapes. Between 1996 and 2002 there has been a X% decrease in escapes. Given challenges faced by personnel this is encouraging. But might have negative impact on rehabilitation
Prisoner on prisoner assaults increased by 1% in 2001 and 2% in Assault on prisoners by wardens increased by 4% in 2001 and 9% in Figures not reliable due to underreporting

45. Summary of prison performance
Workload increasing faster than capacity
Overall, performance is positive
Reduction in escapes
Reduction in incidence of violence
Corruption charges
Policy focus on rehabilitation gaining momentum
Key challenges
To reduce overcrowding
Health of prisoners
If the estimated in the next three years is true. DCS will struggle to build themselves out of overcrowding.
Thus there is a need to focus on alternatives to imprisonment such as the use of non-custodial measures, reasonable bail
Need to improve nutrition and time outside. These have impact on health and levels of stress.

46. What to look out for in 2003
Completion of White Paper by end of the year
Implementation of HIV/Aids policy and the National prevalence study
Strengthening of anti-corruption
Increase community corrections forum
Unit management
Monitoring & accountability of private prisons

47. Key requirements for SA’s crime response
Improve the functioning of the criminal justice system
More resources for crime prevention, prosecution and diversion, and less for corrections?
Better understand of offending patterns to reduce the number of people entering the system