OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Former OneWorld editor Alison Raphael recently returned to the Washington, DC area after three years living in South Africa. She comments on the crime that has become endemic there, and an innovative program to help curtail it.

Crime in South Africa does not discriminate: it affects everyone. Black, white, young or old; few South Africans have not experienced crime. Citizens and honest politicians alike would probably rate crime prevention as the country's top priority public policy issue.

Currently nearly 200,000 South Africans are in prisons, of whom half are young people between the ages of 12 and 25. Correctional facilities are overcrowded and understaffed, court dockets extremely backlogged; crime rates represent a growing burden on the justice system and state resources.

What's more, about 80 percent of released prisoners commit another crime and return to jail. No one seems to know what to do.

© KhulisaBut in 1997 the non-governmental organization Khulisa was established in response to this burgeoning problem. Over the past ten years Khulisa has developed a set of innovative and effective programmes that will soon be piloted in other countries, including the UK, Cambodia, and possibly the United States.

At the heart of Khulisa's holistically conceived approach is a triangle involving: rehabilitation, education, and reconciliation.

Rehabilitation takes place through programs that use story telling, personal journals, and drama to allow prisoners to express themselves and come to grips with -- and overcome -- the violence within them.

It may sound a little corny, but it seems to work. Recidivism among graduates of Khulisa's programs is well below the norm, at just 30 percent.

© KhulisaOne such program, "Silence the Violence," is also delivered to high school students, often by ex-inmates. One Khulisa facilitator noted: "What makes the learners listen is that we have been there. We've done drugs, abused alcohol, and committed serious crimes....Learners see us as providers of knowledge, advice, and experience."

Khulisa also runs a "diversion" program, aimed at keeping young people out of prisons, and an especially innovative reconciliation program that allows prisoners who sincerely regret their crime to apologize personally to their victims and ask for forgiveness. Because the majority of crime in South Africa takes place among people who know one another, it is particularly difficult for offenders to reintegrate into their communities after release -- contributing to the high recidivism rate. Khulisa's program brings the criminal and victim together to promote healing for all concerned, thus at the same time easing the path back to society for released offenders.

The organization was conceived and is managed today by Lesley Ann Van Selm, who was granted "Social Entrepreneur" status by the U.S.-based Ashoka Foundation, among other awards.

Khulisa recently celebrated its tenth anniversary by releasing the results of a survey undertaken with children aged 11-17, to call attention to the impact of crime on youth and the solutions they propose.