Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Expenditure trends and spending priorities for the Department of Correctional Services Report to the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services 20 April 2011 ISS, CSPRI, NICRO 4/21/11 Purpose of the report • • • Response to request by Chair of Portfolio Committee last year Civil society initiative to provide more detailed input Process funded by the OSF and involved ISS, NICRO and CSPRI and utilised skills of economist with experience in working with treasury 4/21/11 What the report does • Provides an analysis of the DCS budget • Identifies the drivers of cost in the DCS • • Attempts to cost rehabilitation programmes – were they to be rolled out nationally and be based on international ‘best-practice’ Demonstrates that within the current budget and facilities provision of rehabilitation programmes is not possible 4/21/11 Key issues • Report highlights two issues: – – Policy shifts are required in order to improve the ‘return on investment’ to society that results from incarceration of those who are convicted of crime The policy shifts that are required involve all departments in the criminal justice system and require dramatic re-assessment of the focus of the DCS Require a radical re-thinking of the role of 4/21/11incarceration in society – Keeping it in perspective • • In 2011/12 SA will spend R16,8 billion keeping 160 000 offenders in prison In the same year we will spend R13,8 billion educating all learners in SA from Grade R to matric Incarceration is expensive – and getting the policy right to ensure minimal but effective use of incarceration as a sentencing option and ensuring that DCS delivers the best 4/21/11 • Presentation outline • • • • Basic facts regarding spending levels and patterns in DCS What drives costs in the DCS Impact of the White Paper on the work of the DCS and financial implications of full implementation Policy choices and implications Conclusions and recommendation • 4/21/11 Basic facts about spending on corrections • • 2010/11 DCS budget was R15,2bn – 37% higher than 2007/8 DCS budget will rise by a further 23% between current year and 2013/2014 • This is a 69% growth since 2007/8 • But this growth must be contextualised 4/21/11 Basic facts about spending on corrections 4/21/11 Contextualising the growth in the DCS budget • • • If the DCS budget had grown at the same rate at the police budget it would be some R1,1bn higher than it is now, or R700 million larger – if one removed the cost of the 4 new PPPs DCS budget as a share of national budget is projected to fall from 2,1% in 2007/8 to 1,8% of national budget in 2013/14. Not a bad thing, but just worth noting 4/21/11 Interpreting the budget • Functional breakdown of the budget by programmes: – – – Administration: core administrative and financial support Security: pays for the guarding of prisoners Corrections: pays for the staff needed to develop sentence plans Care: provides for the physical and psychological 4/21/11care of offenders, including purchasing food for – Programme allocations • • 34% of the budget each year is spent on Security 26% is spent on Administration • 12% is spent on Facilities • 11% is spent on Care • 9% is spent on Corrections, and 3% each on Development and Social 4/21/11 Reintegration • 4/21/11 Interpreting the budget • Another, perhaps more useful way to breakdown the budget is by economic classification: – – about 66% = personnel costs 28% = goods and services (incl leases, property payments, medicines, food and outsourced services) 7% on physical infrastructure (but this varies between 5% and 11% between 2007/8 and 4/21/11 2013/14) – 4/21/11 Misleading analyes • • • Discussions about costs sometimes frames on basis of daily cost incurred by accommodating a prisoner: – 2010/11 average cost was R259 – 2007/8 average cost R198 (26% lower) This may mistakenly be used to make assumptions about cost effectiveness BUT, the DCS budget varies depending on the 4/21/11 Misleading analyses • Such an analysis is mistaken: – • Impact of infrastructure spend can distort the figures Consider the effect that the R455 million that would have been allocated in 2013/14 for the PPP facilities would have had on the calculation of average daily cost of incarceration per prisoner 4/21/11 What drives costs in DCS? • Three factors driving costs in DCS: – – Prisoner numbers Range and quality of services DCS provides to prisoners (including accommodation, nutrition, medical treatment, safetyand security and so on) Changes in characteristics of prisoners may change the costs e.g. ATDs require more administrative handling, more escorts too and from courts 4/21/11 – Cost of services provided (fundamentally this What drives prisoner numbers? • Four variables: – Crime rate – Quality of policing and prosecution services – Laws and court practices regarding granting of bail – Sentencing regime While parliament and other role players can have an influence over these, the influence of DCS over these variables is limited 4/21/11 • Prisoner numbers • • • Rapid growth in prisoner numbers between 1995 and 2003 Since 2003 prisoner numbers have remained stable Since 2006 the daily average prisoner population (including ATDs) has varied between 159 000 and 165 000 4/21/11 Cost drivers: prisoner numbers 4/21/11 Why are prisoner numbers stable? • • • • Perhaps surprising if one considers the high rate of crime, and violent crime in particular Also massive growth in police numbers - by 66 000 since 2003 So, either fewer criminals making their way through the justice system OR they are receiving shorter sentences Latter, not true (see the following graph) 4/21/11 Black line shows the average sentence length – which has risen from 4.4 to 7.3 years since 1995 4/21/11 • • • This is a consequence of minimum sentencing legislation So, DCS fortunate that the rest of the criminal justice sector is not functioning optimally 15 year review by the Presidency found that the number of convictions in SA courts fell from 96 000 in 2006 to 75 000 on 2008 (see the following graph). 4/21/11 4/21/11 Same research found that the conviction rate for serious crimes committed between 2001 and 2006 varied between 20% of all murders reported to police and 2% of car thefts 4/21/11 SAPS ARREST TRENDS 2003 2010 • Total arrests increased by 24%. 12 • Arrests for priority crimes increased by 9% 10 8 Number 6 4 2 0 Financial Year 4/21/11 4/21/11 Implication for DCS The number of newly admitted prisoners has fallen by over 44% since 2004, so: • Number of prisoners has stabilised • Turnover of prisoners has reduced • Prisoners tend to stay in prison for much longer Were the CJS functioning optimally, DCS would be in serious crisis 4/21/11 What drives costs in DCS? • • Personnel costs are another driver of costs in DCS Personnel costs determined by: Number of staff – – Remuneration of staff 4/21/11 Personnel costs • • • DCS, like other government departments has little control over agreements reached in Public Services Bargaining Chamber Rapid increases in average remuneration of civil servants in the past few years 7-day week should have resulted in savings but there is no certainty that it is effective, practical or results in actual savings 4/21/11 How do we know the DCS budget is under pressure? • • Vacant posts frozen after 2007 wage agreement resulting in 2% decline in staff numbers (from 41 000 in 2007/8 to 40 260 in September 2010) Reduction in spending on a range of nonessential issues (e.g. fleet services, use of outside IT consultants, advertising etc) This is not unreasonable – DCS should have done this anyway but WHY is the budget 4/21/11 • Has DCS increased the quality or quantity of services to prisoners? • • • • DCS committed to delivering services in terms of the White Paper Has been an increase in sentence plans from 9836 in 2007/8 to 95 000 projected for 2013/14 (but 40 000 completed in 2010) No substantial increase in literacy training projected (annual 4 500) No significant increase in skills development 4/21/11 Has DCS increased the quality or quantity of services to prisoners? • Also, no significant changes in staff complement – so broad commitments not been reflected in staffing allocations (see the next graph) 4/21/11 4/21/11 The same point can be made by looking at projected growth between different programmes. Those that grow the slowest are Development, Corrections and Social Reintegration 4/21/11 Services? • • 2011 DCS budget shows that ‘Security’ will grow faster than Development, Corrections, Social Reintegration and Care Also, consider that only prisoners with sentences of over 24 months qualify for sentence plans which represents a reduction of services since 2008 (amendment of the Correctional Services Act). Impact of this decision 70% of those • 4/21/11 4/21/11 • • Consequence of this is that DCS acts as a revolving door for prisoners coming in, spending short periods of time in prison and then leaving - at a high administrative cost So, we are not actually seeing an increase or improvement in services – thus the biggest driver of cost, since prisoner numbers have remained the stable is the cost of staff remuneration This has driven DCS to the point where it 4/21/11 cannot realistically plan and deliver high• Implementing the White Paper • • So, lets try to establish what implementing the White Paper will cost Based on international literature, effective rehabilitation programmes have several key features in common 4/21/11 Features of effective programmes • Community-based rather than prison-based • Intensive (at least 6 months long) • Focus on high risk individuals • • Risk levels determined by sophisticated instruments Cognitive behavioural techniques used Matching of therapist and substance of 4/21/11 programme to specific offenders • Factors influencing cost • • • The number of prisoners who qualify to receive such interventions The number of months over which the typical intervention will take place The ratio of recipients of these interventions to the number of professionals providing the services (which, for ease of expression, we will call ‘class size’) The proportion of the day that each ‘class’ will 4/21/11 • Calculation • Possible to calculate: – How many ‘classes’ annually – Number of professionals involved – Cost of professionals – – Number of prisoners receiving interventions: 60 000 (based on interventions only to those sentenced to more than 24 months) Intervention classes will last 6 months 4/21/11 Estimated cost of rehabilitation 4/21/11 Other costs (not calculated) • • Increased administrative capacity required (add 25%) Development of risk assessment and predictive tools • Infrastructure costs • Additional resources 4/21/11 These could double the costs presented in the Implications of the costing • • If DCS were to deliver services to 66 000 prisoners, the least possible cost would be R1bn, i.e. a R1bn increase to the existing budget – which doesn’t sound unreasonable But, are such programmes effective and practical AND is this the right policy approach? Current challenges relate to housing all prisoners humanely and ensuring safety and security in prisons 4/21/11 • Additional questions • • Will or can these really reduce the amount of crime committed by prisoners after their release? How certain can we be of that this will occur and that the reason for the decline will be the programmes the DCS offers rather than simply the amount of time prisoners spend in prison and the fact they’ve aged in the process? Is it even possible to rehabilitate prisoners • 4/21/11 Recommendations • Policy revision, to include: – – Is there value in passing custodial sentences of 24 months or less, given that this category of prisoner spends a relatively short time in prison, receives no services during that time, but probably costs the department a great deal in terms of administration – and makes up 70% of all releases annually. Whether minimum sentencing legislation is appropriate and can achieve the objective of deterring crime. 4/21/11 – Whether the DCS should be offering rehabilitation : +27 12 346 9500 : www.issafrica.org : [email protected] Click to edit Master subtitle style 4/21/11 4848