The Strategic Benefits Of Rehabilitation Of The Prison Population Of The City Of Tshwane

Abstract

There are 158, 111 prisoners in South Africa. This figure includes pre-trial detainees or remand prisoners. Foreign prisoners account for about 7.5% of the South African prison population. There are 243 prison facilities in South Africa. The official capacity of South African prisons is 119, 134. There is a severe shortage of prison facilities in South Africa. Several studies have shown the need for rehabilitation programmes based on international best practice. A survey was conducted by collecting data from 408 residents of the City of Tshwane in South Africa in order to identify factors that affect the perception of people living in the City about the rehabilitation of prison inmates back into society. Multivariate methods of data analyses were used for data analyses. The results showed that 83.33% of respondents support the rehabilitation of South African prison inmates, whereas the remaining 16.67% do not support the rehabilitation of South African prison inmates. The results identified 3 influential factors. These 3 factors were the gender of respondents, the ages of respondents and the level of education of respondents.