Children in Prison in South Africa - Community Law Centre

period, they said that they are locked up until 2pmwhen they are released to fetch their lunch, althoughthe warders say they do have the option of exercisingor attending classes. After lunch, they are locked upagain until the following morning.Staff Training"The personnel should receive such training aswill enable them to carry out their responsibilitieseffectively, in particular training in child psychology,child welfare and international standards and normsof human rights and the rights of the child, includingthe present Rules. The personnel should maintainand improve their knowledge and professionalcapacity by attending courses of in-service training,to be organized at suitable intervals throughouttheir career. " (UN RULES 85)Training to help warders deal with juveniles is providedin some cases, although it consists, in the main, of veryshort courses. At Odi, for example, members of staffreceived training from the National Association of ChildCare Workers in a two day Professional AssaultResponse, Training Programme. This is supposed toprovide staff with the necessary skills to deal withjuveniles, using non-conflictual and non-violent methods.At Malmesbury, however, the authorities reported theirconcern that nobody in the prison had been trained towork with juveniles. They felt that the children neededto work with someone who understands their needs.At Westville Youth Centre, there is in-service training for'Correctional Services staff, mostly on the treatmentof juveniles. The staff said that the new focus onrehabilitation has made a positive impact on theirattitude to juveniles and the way they relate to them,The social workers confirmed that the younger staffwho had been trained had a very much more positiveattitude to the children. However one of the socialworkers suggested that, following the release ofchildren in 1994 and a more rigid demarcation ofduties around section 29 and sentenced .youth, staffwere not as forthcoming as they had been in theirapproach to rehabilitative work.At Westville Women's Prison, although in-service trainingis provided, generally only the social workers haveaccess to training, despite the fact that there are anumber of areas in which warders could receive training,such as human rights and non-punitive discipline.Social WorkersSocial workers are a scarce commodity in the prisonsvisited. Sometimes there is no social worker. Oftenthere are only one or two whose job it is to serve anentire prison population, sometimes running intothousands. At Malmesbury, at the time of the visit,there was no social worker for the juveniles, althoughthe authorities had been promised that one would beappointed 'very soon'. The prison social workerworked 'mainly on correctional supervision cases.Sentenced children at the Westville Youth Centre areserved by two full time social workers, assisted bystudents from the University of Durban-Westville. At thetime of the visit, there were 435 sentenced juveniles•