Remission of sentence wrong way to tackle prison overcrowding

Today President Jacob Zuma announced that he had decided to grant "a special remission of sentence to specific categories of sentenced offenders, probationers and parolees".

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is in principle opposed to the remission of sentences. It is a slap in the face for victims of crime, and their families. In addition, it diminishes the deterrent effect of sentences.

However, we acknowledge that prisons face serious overcrowding, and that measures need to be taken to manage overcrowding downwards.

There are much more imaginative ways in which overcrowding can be addressed, for example through the use of alternative community-based sentencing which enables perpetrators to pay back in to society what they have taken out through acts of crime.

Statement issued by James Selfe MP, DA Shadow Minister of Correctional Services, April 27 2012

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