By The People

What type of person do you imagine when you think of a volunteer working for the benefit of others in South Africa? Do you imagine a township Mama whose long life has been spent caring for her children, grandchildren and her community? Or do you imagine a privileged young idealist who takes time out between studying to try to make a difference? And when you consider those in need, who do you imagine?

One kind of person that one doesn’t usually imagine being a volunteer – or as the ideal beneficiary of volunteer activity – is a robust young ex-prisoner.

Yet recent research involving young men in conflict with the law has brought to light some poignant personal stories from such young men, providing a fresh look on the motivations of those who become volunteers – and those who have been helped by volunteers.

While many of us are tempted to write off “criminals” as a lost cause, some of these young men, with the help of some innovation intervention programmes which often make use of committed volunteers, are turning their lives around and some are themselves becoming committed to volunteer activity.

This number of young ex-prisoners in South Africa is large and growing. In the financial year 1995/6 for example, two in every 100 young men aged 18 to 20 were convicted of committing a crime. According to the Office of the Inspecting Judge, 56% of the national prison population comprised persons aged 18-30, as at January 31, 2005. Some 30 000 prisoners are released from prison every month in South Africa. By weight of numbers alone, the fate of ex-prisoners in South Africa is of great importance.

The following stories have been extracted from focus group interviews held in 2005 with young men who have been involved with Khulisa, NICRO, Hearts of Men, and the Together Action Group, all organisations which provide interventions which seek to assist young people in conflict with the law with developing the skills required to adapt to a life without crime. Many of the young men participating in these programmes have chosen to engage in volunteer or community-serving activity on leaving prison.

Some now have dreams of serving the community:

“A straight face and a positive mind” – I had negative mind towards prison warders, so at first I was actually stubborn and I looked at life in a negative way, but later something happened to me. It was one day when I was lying on my (prison) bed and then I had to respond to nature, so when I walked down to passage into the bathroom there was a mirror on the wall, so when I walked passed that mirror I saw something, then I went back to that mirror and looked at that mirror and I saw the (self) reflection. The reflection that I saw on that mirror was not the reflection that I expected, it was a very different person that I was seeing on the mirror, and I had a cigarette too, by that time I was also smoking mandrax and weed (i.e. dagga) and then I looked at the reflection, I took the puff of the cigarette, and I saw the reflection getting worse after that puff and I took the cigarette out of the mouth, I saw a different reflection thinking of myself as a young man, you know, intelligent so that day I had to make a decision as to which image in the mirror do I actually want to be, and fortunately I needed to make a right decision, I decided to make a image, with a straight face and with a positive mind, so from that day, I had a mission.  I involved myself with church as a Christian. Three weeks down the line I was an MC and later I quit smoking after that I went to the authorities to ask them to provide a smoking free zone, like a cell, and then they ask me to go back to draw a petition and find out other guys who have the same problem, so I did that petition and I found other guys who had the same interest in arts, I brought the petition and it was approved so they gave us a cell, and I was responsible for that cell. Later it was discovered that the cell was the most cleanest and healthier in the whole prison because every Sunday there was an inspections for the cleanest cell and cleanest people in the cell. Later on Khulisa came in.  I was trained as drug peer counsellor, then I had to go back into prison as a counsellor and changed person so I touched a few lives of other prisoners.

And others have simply taken a person journey to becoming responsible citizens.

“As a person you fall but you also need to stand up” – I am 27 yrs and currently busy with my IT studies and I am running Internet Cafe. I am a teacher by training. After getting almost ten years, I stayed eight years in prison for alleged arm robbery. My experience in prison was quite a shock to be in such a place knowing you have nothing to do with the crime, though you were with the actual people who committed the crime. it was quite saddening, but in another way was a learning curve, not to mingle with people that you know what they are doing for living as well and for me it sort of brought me up to realization where I was and where I wanted to be – after that I just went to completing my schooling.  I did my teaching Diploma whilst in prison through UNISA, and I taught there (in prison) for a couple of years, basically giving lot of counseling and teaching as educator until my appeal came through last year, so it was that, almost eight years. My interaction with the correctional officers was more or less difficult. Anger was one thing I fostered for quite sometime until I realized that I am fostering anger and is not going to do me much. I had this thing that when I leave prison I am going to start with these warders, you desperately need to avenge because of ill-treatment, I had that thing in my mind also thinking with the anger that I was here for someone’s wrong.  one way or the other the officers or someone outside has to pay for this, but as time went on, no, I think it healed, that I realized that I might go away with it or get into trouble with the law again. I was introduced to Khulisa in Boksburg by a social worker – basically Khulisa introduced me to a one part of me that I did not know. I firstly went through their manuals, which was sort of some therapy healing my anger and my wounds, and realized that as a person you fall but you also need to stand up.

And others see themselves as part of a larger community of men who will be different from their forebears:

“We can be different from our fathers” – The programme (Hearts of Men) is the best thing that has ever happened to us, we were able to open up for the first time, talk about our fears, our concerns and what we would like to achieve in life. We want to be different from the rest of our peers, we want to be different from our fathers, we want to be different from the rest of the community, we want to prove to the world that we can be educated, we can be responsible members of the community, we can work instead of relying on proceeds of crime.

Yet the challenges faced by these young men on leaving prison are perhaps harsher than the circumstances which may have contributed to their being imprisoned in the first place. Rejection by their home communities and parents is a painful reality which many ex-prisoners face.

“The community hated us” – The community of Westbury hated us so much. Some of us felt that our parents also hated us. Actually I had to move out. No, I am no longer staying in the same community where I used to live before going into prison. One day I had to move. I had to come back one day I heard people coming up with stereotypes thinking, saying that “once a criminal always a criminal”, so it was not easy for me, some of them because I cannot move around telling everyone that I have changed, but they could see that I have changed but some were sceptical about that, so I just have to tell myself that I needed to move on with my life. A typical community in township – especially those who hate crime in a neighbourhood would say, Oh, the criminal is back!

And the prison experience makes them an easy targets for those on the lookout for accomplices.

“People know what you are capable of” – I don’t see myself doing crime because I know how to deal with situations although sometimes you are from the township and in the township life is not always the way you want it to be especially with us people who once were involved in criminal activities in the past, you will get someone who would want you to get involved in criminal activities in a different way, you see, people who would provoke you knowing that you are capable of doing this such as gangsterism or shooting at people, they might think that they can just sent you to hijack a car as you are capable of doing that, just taking a car and come back.

Yet many are convinced they have changed for good, and for the greater good.

“Taking responsibility” – Khulisa has given me basic skills of how to cope with certain situations such as anger management, conflict resolution etc and those are the skills I got from Khulisa. I don’t see myself doing crime because I know how to deal with situations. We don’t see ourselves coming in conflict with the law because we have been taken through a journey of understanding our actions, the effect of whatever we do on our families, our community and the country as the whole. We can now take responsibility for our actions, we can differentiate between right and wrong, we respect ourselves and other people.

While these stories provide hope and inspiration, the number of young men benefiting from intervention programmes offered by organisations such as Khulisa and NICRO remains small, compared to the numbers leaving prisons each month.

Yet there may well be an exponential effect, with beneficiaries of the programmes in turn seemingly passing on what they have learnt to their peers and to their communities.

For more information on programmes for prisoners and ex-prisoners, visit:
www.khulisa.org.za
www.nicro.org.za

The material used in this article draws on research conducted by Jabu Dhlamini for the Umsobomvu Youth Fund.