NGO Policy Analysis: Young in Prison

Young in Prison (YiP) is a non-profit organization with the motto “Be Part of The Solution!” A Dutch citizen who worked with incarcerated youth in Pollsmoor Prison and

recognized a need for enhanced supportive services for young inmates founded the organization in the Nederlands in 2002. The Cape Town branch was formally registered soon after, and is currently operated by an independent board and management group, which is in the process of becoming financially self-sustainable. Currently, funding comes in part from European Union grants as well as South African fundraising.178 The organization has eleven fulltime staff

members and a management board comprised of five members who serve as an advisory body.179 In administration, women effectively run the organization, with four women in leadership

positions. There are male staff are group facilitators who interface with youth in prison and other detention facilities. There are also two female facilitators who work with female inmates. There are also many projects in which the entire staff participates together such as the Post-Release Program, Job Placement Project, and the Memeza social Dialogue events.

Young in Prison SA has developed programs to address the specific needs of South African participants, which varies from the offices established later in Colombia, Suriname and Malawi. YiPSA’s vision is to “ensure that even within a harsh prison environment, children and youth are given the opportunity to become constructive, active and positive citizens for a safer South Africa.”180 The mission states; “Young in Prison fights for a safer South Africa by imparting life skills using arts and sports to youth at risk, empowering them to change behavior to participate positively in society.” YiPSA has developed multiple strategies of intervention, which act upon the vision and mission at three levels; the individual, the community and the government. Following is an explanation of how these three realms of focus engage in the concerns and development of Young in Prison South Africa’s mission and vision.

Young in Prison: Perceptions of the Problems

The issues affecting Cape Town’s most disadvantaged youth, at an individual level, are multi-dimensional and intersectional. Environmental, social, economic and political factors restrict opportunities in their daily lives, creating personal and psychological barriers to success.

178 _{Young in Prison website. http://www.younginprison.org.za/history/}

179 _{Young in Prison website. http://www.younginprison.org.za/management-board/} 180 _{Young in Prison website. http://www.younginprison.org.za/vision-and-missiion/}

Young in Prison refer to the “emotional conflicts” that arise as a result. The ubiquity of drugs, alcohol, “gangsterism” and firearms offer youth an easy route to a criminal lifestyle. Lack of support in psycho-social terms is part of the picture as well, with many of the youth’s families being negatively affected by the same risk factors. Youth have few role models and scarce opportunities to develop constructive social networks.181

At the community level, causes of the problem are found in outlying townships with environments of destitution, marked by poverty, crime and violence. Due to the prevalence of these influences, many young people are at high risk of coming into conflict with the law, and subsequently becoming caught in a cycle of prison recidivism.182 Communities hold stigma for youth offenders, often failing to identify opportunities for intervention when youth have the commitment to desisting from criminal activities. This results in many youth losing the initiative for positive change, and returning to delinquent behaviors. There is a lack of formal, constructive intervention practices for young offenders, particularly at the reintegration stage. When youth return to their communities from prison they are faced with the same obstacles and risk factors that brought them into the correctional system previously. Inadequate life skills and vocational skills put young South Africans at a higher risk of reoffending. Insufficient knowledge and organizational capacity of cultural grassroots organizations prevents the provision of quality and sustainable services to help support these youth and reduce recidivism.183

Problems originating at the government level include weak implementation of socially progressive policies to minimize youth incarceration, inadequacies in the public education system, and unresolved economic inequalities resulting from apartheid government policies. YiP identifies how these factors relate to high crime and incarceration rates for Cape Town youth, “crime exists as a result of the conditions of inequality that trigger these risk factors. In the end, the real victims remain youth born into a life in which crime functions as a means of

survival.”184Young in Prison believes that political dialogue should be open between the incarcerated individual and the administrators of his environment, but this opportunity is currently “stifled by the nature of incarceration and the complete disempowerment that

181 _{Young in Prison website: http://www.younginprison.org.za/vision-and-missiion/} 182 _{Young in Prison Website: http://www.younginprison.org.za/memeza-shout-it-out/} 183 _{Young in Prison Website. http://www.younginprison.org.za/vision-and-missiion/} 184 _IBID.

accompanies institutionalization.”185 In recognition of this structural and policy gap, YiP endeavors to bridge this by working at individual and policy levels in generating awareness and communication between all parties involved.

The Organization’s Suggested and Applied Remedies

Remedial strategies at the individual level include life-skills workshops within and outside of prison. Young in Prison’s goal is to facilitate life-skills and self-development and for youth caught in a cycle of prison recidivism. These goals are advanced through arts, theater and games, team-building exercises, writing and discussion. The curriculum centers on critical topics that address identity, violence, family, relationships and social dynamics, among other themes. The artwork, writing and poetry generated through these activities are compiled and published as a magazine, which is distributed to the public and within the townships where the youth are from. This magazine provides the program participants with a sense of personal accomplishment, while giving them a platform for their thoughts and perspectives to be heard by their families and the public. It is also a public outreach tool, in that it helps raise awareness about juvenile justice and the obstacles facing South African youth in prison.186

Individual development is further supported by the post-release program, which helps to prepare participants for the difficult transition from prison back to their communities. Young in Prison offers educational scholarships and assistance with acquiring gainful employment or specific skills-training workshops. The young men and women, recently released from prison, who participate in this program receive advising and guidance on how to activate their personal goals and are supported in self-efficacy throughout the process. This provides a strengthened sense of self-confidence, empowerment and social support for ex-offenders who want to desist from criminal activities.187

One of Young in Prison’s core objectives is public outreach and awareness-raising around the issues that contribute to youth incarceration and recidivism. In South Africa, the majority of the population does not have access to internet, and in the peripheral townships of this particularly the case. In order to reach members of marginalized communities, Young in Prison organizes live social dialogue events. The objective of this strategy is to engage the

185 _IBID.

186 _{http://www.younginprison.org.za/inside-out-the-magazine/} 187 _{http://www.younginprison.org.za/job-placement-project/}

families of the juveniles to express how they have been impacted and to develop communication with their youth to foster trust. In this manner, communities can work towards cohesion in strategy-building for change, while youth can be involved in addressing their own needs and remedies to recidivism. This approach also addresses the deep stigma experienced by youth who are labeled by community members as part of the problem. The social dialogue concept is also brought to schools, where former youth offenders speak to their peers about the obstacles and opportunities in avoiding criminal behaviors that lead to incarceration. In doing so, the former offender builds on positive self-identity, while contributing to a social justice imperative in the community.188

YiP’s goal in relation to political efficacy is “(t)o strive for necessary and sustainable change by lobbying government and educating surrounding communities to address stigma and over-incarceration…To develop structures that enable youth in conflict with the law to

communicate with their policy makers.”189 This goal is advanced by selecting ‘Siyakhana Ambassadors’ from the post-release project to act as representatives for other former offenders. The concept behind “Siyakhana”190 is that young people should be involved in building up their own strengths with support at every level, and that this should be directly reflected by public policies. Yip’s stated goal to this effect is that, “if they are heard and are given a platform to share their actionable views, they will become active members of the country.” The reasoning is that youth engaged in civic activities and community-building efforts are less likely to re-offend, and are also more likely to contribute socially and economically to the nation as a whole.”191 The organization also authors policy-recommendations and working reports to demonstrate the advantages of enhancing political visibility of these issues at government levels.