Different agencies of the state involved in criminal cases‚ from the arrest to the time a person serves a sentence‚ have laid bare some of the problems they face due to the lack of an integrated system in the criminal justice systems.
The nature of a criminal case in South Africa involves the National Prosecuting Authority‚ the SA Police Service‚ Home Affairs‚ the department of Justice and Correctional Services‚ Social Development‚ Legal Aid SA and other state agencies‚ depending on the case.
But all these institutions currently do not have an integrated information system which enables one party to know what another party is doing at any given time.
This was brought up by the police and other stakeholders during a meeting of the Gauteng portfolio committee on community safety held in Rosebank on Thursday. The committee was hosting a dialogue to assess integration in the criminal justice system of the province.
Major-General Colin Hendricks of the police in Gauteng said when the criminal justice system fails‚ it is the police who take the blame because they are the most visible of the entities fighting crime.
Hendricks said the accused can simply not respond to his name being called in court just to cause confusion if he is the right man who was brought to the court.
“When the court orderly calls me‚ he is not the one who received me in prison. There is no digital system which makes sure that the person in court is the same person who was in prison. The magistrate will ask‚ go call the name three times. I can refuse to respond to that name.
"The court orderly does not know me‚ nobody else knows me and my matter can get struck of the court roll. Then that information will find its way back to prison. When prison does its recount‚ they say this matter has been struck off the roll‚ they don’t interrogate the reasons and I get released‚” he explained.
Hendricks told the committee that the easiest way to see that the systems are not integrated is the annual operations plans which do not speak to each other‚ thus have “competing priorities”.
“We arrest 500 people‚ but the people who have to deal with them don’t know anything about them. There are no arrangements made at court which means there are no prosecutors available.
“Even if you are able to get that far‚ when you get to Lindela they refuse to accept him. If you take him back to police cells‚ it is unlawful detention‚” Hendricks said.
The lack of integration also frustrates other stakeholders such as the People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa). The organisation has shelters helping women who have been victims of crime. However‚ the time a victim can spend at its facilities is limited.
Adeline Moagi‚ head of projects and training at Powa‚ said that when victims of crime realise that the perpetrator has been released without knowing why‚ they are scared to leave the shelter fearing for the worse.
Jacques Nel‚ principal legal practitioner for the Soweto office in Legal Aid SA‚ said if the system were integrated‚ it would enable lawyers to easily spot matters that remain on the roll for too long.
Nel said it would also help if Legal Aid SA could have “virtual access” to the docket system. This would enable the organisation to monitor all documents in a case such as postmortem results‚ DNA and other forensic reports destined for the court.
The Department of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency issued a tender in 2016 to do a review of the criminal justice system. The study was awarded to the Human Sciences Research Council and the Institute for Security Studies.
Findings of this study are expected to be released next year.
State agencies lament lack of integration of criminal justice systems
The nature of a criminal case in South Africa involves the National Prosecuting Authority‚ the SA Police Service‚ Home Affairs‚ the department of Justice and Correctional Services‚ Social Development‚ Legal Aid SA and other state agencies‚ depending on the case.
But all these institutions currently do not have an integrated information system which enables one party to know what another party is doing at any given time.
This was brought up by the police and other stakeholders during a meeting of the Gauteng portfolio committee on community safety held in Rosebank on Thursday. The committee was hosting a dialogue to assess integration in the criminal justice system of the province.
Major-General Colin Hendricks of the police in Gauteng said when the criminal justice system fails‚ it is the police who take the blame because they are the most visible of the entities fighting crime.
Hendricks said the accused can simply not respond to his name being called in court just to cause confusion if he is the right man who was brought to the court.
“When the court orderly calls me‚ he is not the one who received me in prison. There is no digital system which makes sure that the person in court is the same person who was in prison. The magistrate will ask‚ go call the name three times. I can refuse to respond to that name.
"The court orderly does not know me‚ nobody else knows me and my matter can get struck of the court roll. Then that information will find its way back to prison. When prison does its recount‚ they say this matter has been struck off the roll‚ they don’t interrogate the reasons and I get released‚” he explained.
Hendricks told the committee that the easiest way to see that the systems are not integrated is the annual operations plans which do not speak to each other‚ thus have “competing priorities”.
“We arrest 500 people‚ but the people who have to deal with them don’t know anything about them. There are no arrangements made at court which means there are no prosecutors available.
“Even if you are able to get that far‚ when you get to Lindela they refuse to accept him. If you take him back to police cells‚ it is unlawful detention‚” Hendricks said.
The lack of integration also frustrates other stakeholders such as the People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa). The organisation has shelters helping women who have been victims of crime. However‚ the time a victim can spend at its facilities is limited.
Adeline Moagi‚ head of projects and training at Powa‚ said that when victims of crime realise that the perpetrator has been released without knowing why‚ they are scared to leave the shelter fearing for the worse.
Jacques Nel‚ principal legal practitioner for the Soweto office in Legal Aid SA‚ said if the system were integrated‚ it would enable lawyers to easily spot matters that remain on the roll for too long.
Nel said it would also help if Legal Aid SA could have “virtual access” to the docket system. This would enable the organisation to monitor all documents in a case such as postmortem results‚ DNA and other forensic reports destined for the court.
The Department of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency issued a tender in 2016 to do a review of the criminal justice system. The study was awarded to the Human Sciences Research Council and the Institute for Security Studies.
Findings of this study are expected to be released next year.
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