ISS Seminar: Mindful Punishment: What to do About the South African Penal System, and Why

Date: 2008-06-12 to Invalid date

ISS Seminar: Mindful Punishment: What to do About the South African Penal System, and Why
Pretoria, 12 June 2008

 

NOTE: THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN CANCELLED

It is generally believed that our penal system is broken: prisons are woefully overcrowded, gangs dominate prison life, staff are overwhelmed by the combination of poor prison conditions and unmanageable crowding, recidivism rates are very high, and imprisonment is about the most expensive ‘service’ offered by the criminal justice system.

 

In this seminar, Prof Todd Clear will argue that although SA’s penal system is stretched to its limits, it is possible to respond more ethically without an overwhelming investment of new resources. The two key strategies are reducing the length of sentences and creating a viable new system of community based (non-prison) sentences. Neither strategy will be easy, but doing one without the other will fail.

 

Prof Todd Clear is a Distinguished Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and Executive Officer of the Program of Doctoral Studies in Criminal Justice, The CUNY Graduate Center. He has written extensively on issues relating to corrections, criminal justice policies, crime and community justice.

 

Respondent: Prof Stephan Terblanche, Department of Criminal and Procedural Law, UNISA

 

Pretoria, 12 June 2008 Antoinette Louw, Senior Research Fellow, ISS

 

Venue: ISS Conference Room, Block C, Brooklyn Court, Veale Street, Tshwane (Pretoria)
(Parking in Brooklyn Mall and ABSA Court)

Time: 11h00 – 13h00 (Lunch will be provided)

RSVP: Busiswa Nyume; Email: [email protected]; Tel: (012) 346 9500; Fax (012) 4600997/8

 

This seminar is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation