| Children behind bars -
inside a Cape Town prison
By Liz Cowan
I am a social worker who spent more
than a year working in the juvenile
section – Medium A – in
Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, a place
where Nelson Mandela was held before
his release. I learnt a few things about
gangs during my time there.
Just about every child told the same
story. The gangs are active inside and
outside schools and on every street
corner from Sea Point to Woodstock,
Manenberg, Mitchell’s Plain, Gugulethu,
Athlone and Lavender Hill, and dozens
of other suburbs.
Most inmates told me they joined a gang
when they were 12 to 14 years old, in
Grade 7 or 8. Their role models are
the gang bosses who drive BMWs and who
rule supreme through fear and violence.
Initially, their “friends”
in the gang gave them free dagga (marijuana)
and later the drug, Mandrax. Many received
free handguns. After a time the freebies
dried up. Hooked into the gang lifestyle
of violence and drugs, they soon had
to start funding their drug habit, which
they did through crime.
This is how 99 per cent of them get
into crime. They need money to pay for
the drugs that the gangs get them hooked
on. It starts off with petty thieving
and ends up in most cases in armed robbery
and, sooner or later, in Pollsmoor or
some other prison.
These children are as tough as nails
on the outside. Inside they are often
just like other children: they love
their moms; they want a home; they want
their own family one day; and they want
to be good role models to their children.
They are not helped in Pollsmoor. There
is no real rehabilitation in Medium
A. There are two fulltime social workers
and one part-time social worker to attend
to 2,000 inmates. Almost a third of
these have been convicted; the others
are awaiting trial.
Prisoners are often released on parole
without even seeing a social worker.
Many are released on parole even when
a social worker’s report requires
the inmate to attend group therapy.
Even if the courts instruct the offender
to attend drug counselling or a sexual
offenders’ programme, this is
not done.
When I left Pollsmoor’s Medium
A section a few weeks ago, no social
workers were facilitating such rehabilitation
groups – zip, none, since last
year. I have never worked in a place
where the level of motivation is so
low.
Social workers and guards spend much
of their time trying to find ways to
do the least work possible. In their
defence, the workload is so impossible
that this is perhaps a survival mechanism.
The staff-to-inmate ratio is ludicrous.
So these children are not getting any
help in prison. When they are released,
they go back to exactly the same circumstances
they left behind: no education, gangs,
drugs and no money. Except, of course,
they have a prison record. Many of their
family members have given up on them.
They have no hope. They believe they
have no life outside a gang.
They carry the gang markings on their
bodies and they talk the gang lingo
and do a fascinating dance with their
hands when they speak, like all gangsters
do. There is no turning back for these
children. You can identify them a mile
off.
But most of our children are not in
jail. How can we help them? How can
we stop gangs being seen as an attractive
lifestyle for young children in the
community? How do we get rid of gangs?
We need to cut off the source of recruitment
for gangs. Gangs need “robots”
to function – no robots carrying
out orders, no gangs.
First, be ruthless in removing active
gang members from school grounds and
street corners. Disarm school children
of all weapons. Be harsh.
Second, offer children a more favourable
option. Children have to believe that
they have self-worth and that there
is a constructive role and future out
there for them in society.
The children in prison have never believed
this. They gave up hope long ago, and
unfortunately there are thousands of
vulnerable youngsters out there who
feel the same way as the inmates. Schoolchildren
need adequate preparation towards leading
a productive life. It does not just
happen on its own.
They need more than mathematics and
science, history and geography. We need
to instil in them a belief in a future
by teaching them intensive life skills
from Grade 1 up. Teach them how to communicate
effectively, how to set realistic goals
and how to achieve them; how to make
decisions and solve problems. Help them
towards learning to take responsibility
for their actions and to feel proud
when they do so and when they achieve
a goal. Teach them anger management
skills and conflict-resolution skills.
Teach them the dangers of drugs and
how to say no to them.
To educate school pupils and strengthen
their resolve, bring former gangsters
and convicts into the classroom to give
first-hand accounts of the life-destroying
experiences of gangs and prison. If
we do this, the gangs will hold no attraction
for our youngsters.
It will take a serious commitment from
government to achieve this. Competent
and committed life skills educators
would need to be employed in all schools
specifically to teach life and communication
skills to children for the duration
of their schooling. Policing and security
on and around school grounds would have
to be efficient.
Investment in a prosperous future for
our children is priceless. Every cent
spent on a workable, efficiently delivered
preventive programme would be invaluable
investment in prosperity for South Africa.
Children have a constitutional right
to a safe environment within which to
learn and live.
It is too late for most of the youngsters
already caught in gang webs and it is,
of course, too late for the innocents
caught in their crossfire. This government
needs to act to save the others.
Liz Cowan is a Cape Town social
worker. This article is an excerpt of
a longer piece she wrote for the South
African daily, the Cape Times. UN-HABITAT
is grateful to Ms. Cowan and the Cape
Times for allowing us to reproduce it
here.
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