The Games Kids Play

May 2004 – 25’00”

FENLEY BIT

Children arrested for serious and violent crimes is on the increase. But what leads a child from the schoolyard to the court-room? These youthful offenders are of all races – and are all barely out of childhood. And… can a child criminal ever change?

UPS: JUVENILES – then the husband tried to fetch the gun near the dressing table and its where by he started to shoot…We raped the girl and then…I didn’t know how to control my anger I just went I just fought…

UPS JUVENILE: I am in for 35 years

UPS DOCTOR: I have been sentenced for 27 years imprisonment for murder and robbery which was committed in 1999

UPS JUVENILE: I am about to serve 32 years imprisonment for rape and murder and assaulting.

UPS JUVENILE: I was 17 years old and then the other girls we took them to their place, you see we left with the other one. You see and the other one when he want us to took him to his place, me I refused. You see and I said I never waste my money for vokol…for nothing.

UPS JUVENILE: At that time when I committed the crime okay at that time I was 18 years old.

UPS JUVENILE: I believe at that time I was round about 15 to 16, something like that.

UPS SYLVESTER: When the incident happened I was about 16 years old.

UPS TITLE SEQUENCE

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V/O: This is Medium C section at Johannesburg Prison…nicknamed Sun City. It houses some of the country’s most violent criminals. Those who have robbed, raped and murdered – some while in their teens.

UPS FLORA: We don’t have petty crimes here some of their crimes are very terrible that is why I am saying it is kidnapping, raping and murdering and all those kinds of things, etc.

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V/O: This doesn’t daunt Xoli …a rehabilitation worker. She believes these young men can change.

UPS LESLEY ANN: The people are crying out and they are saying people should be locked away and the key should be thrown away. But there is no point in that because 95% of criminals do return to society. Unless their behaviour is corrected they are gonna come back and they are gonna be more victims in their lives.

V/O: Xoli works for Khulisa… a private organization contracted to run workshops for juveniles inside the country’s prisons.

UPS FLORA: To me these people they are going to be leaders, but where are they now.

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V/O: Khulisa’s workshop combines life-skills and group counselling. It aims to give an inmate new direction… to ensure they don’t fall into the cracks when they leave… this despite the fact that more than 80 per cent of prisoners re-offend after release. The longest sentence here is 35 years. The average age of inmates is 21.

UPS SYLVESTER: The thing that made me get involved in crime is like I always you know wanted to be known…so that people know me. That is the thing that made me get involved in crime because I made money out of it and I didn’t wait up to depend on my family.

UPS DOCTOR: Then I started to say in order for me to move on with life and continuing with my studies I have to get money but how. Then something clicks in my mind and the first thing was crime because I thought it’s the simplest way to make money. Only do find that I am digging myself a grave cause today its like I am half dead.

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PICK UP AS INMATE GESTURES TO HIS BOOK

V/O: Arguably, no life-skills training can change a person who was a violent criminal while still a teenager. But Khulisa says they can at least try.

UPS LESLEY ANN: I certainly don’t believe that everybody can be rehabilitated and I think some people are damaged. And are and will always be a threat to society.

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V/O: Medium C also has a section housing convicted inmates under 18. Its population is slowly swelling.

UPS FLORA: There is a serious problem when it comes to our youth. You know if you can go to medium A and check those awaiting trial its about 1000something and some of them they are not yet sentenced. It means I still have to wait to accommodate more youth.

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V/O: By last year, 16 percent of all prisoners in jail were between 14 and 20 years old. The numbers of youth who rob, rape and murder, is increasing.

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UPS JUVENILE: I said what is it that you want to see and he said I will…he started pulling out a gun. When he was pulling he was trying to pull out a gun. Fortunately I had the gun with me then I pulled out the gun. Then I shot him first.

UPS JUVENILE: I can prove I’m not like that, I had a girlfriend…

UPS JUVENILE: Because of the drugs my head…I just lost my temper and I started swearing back at him while he was shouting at the mother and I told them that I am gonna shoot the mother and do all kinds of things with the family you see.

UPS JUVENILES IN POLICE VAN: I was arrested…I am arrested…for assault. I beat my girlfriend because he was mixing me and another boy…I was arrested for unlicensed firearm because I wanted to go phaga a person…because I need money…sometimes you get lucky maybe you get R2000 or R4000…you see and sometimes when its not lucky you can get a phone. And R400 you see its small money. And we only rob white men not black. Because the white men they treat our grandparents very not right…they didn’t treat us right and now its time that they must feel the pain.

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V/O: There is confusion in South African law over what defines a juvenile. Correctional Services says anyone under 23. The Department of Social Welfare, which manages places of safety, says it is anyone under 18. But both departments agree on one thing – a juvenile who commits a serious offence, must be locked up whilst awaiting trial.

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V/O: This is Bosasa, outside Krugersdorp. It’s called a “youth centre.” But its inhabitants are not at summer camp. They’re children awaiting trial for serious and violent crimes. In South Africa, a juvenile can be tried and prosecuted for a crime. But they are assumed to lack so-called “capacity” – in other words they had no intent to commit the crime.

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V/O: The early morning breakfast queue. These youngsters eat at around 7am, to prepare for the day. It is their court appearance day. And for most, it’s neither their first nor the last appearance inside the halls of justice.

UPS PAPA: Now we have realised that the ages are slowly going to your tens, your elevens, your twelves. And that is our current issue of concern but that is what we are getting.

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V/O: Juvenile crime is governed by the Criminal Procedure Act and Correctional Services Act. Juveniles can be, and are tried in criminal courts. There are no formal juvenile courts, but cases involving youngsters are held in camera. And juveniles too feel the effects of slow justice. The law says a detained child must be brought before the court every 14 days. That’s in theory. In reality, a place like Bosasa is a revolving door. The courts regularly send them back to the centre. Weeks of waiting can turn into months…

UPS PAPA: The fact that we are getting a daily intake says to us that the system is failing and the system starts from there.

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V/O: To these youngsters carry their lives in plastic bags until the court finds them not guilty, or finds them guilty and sentences them.

UPS CONVERSATION

UPS JUVENILES: They hit me with the remind…five times now this is the sixth time…I am coming here…I am 15 years old…I am 17 years old…maybe 15 times.

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V/O: Yet they should consider themselves lucky. Bosasa is a so-called “place of safety,” not a prison. The law also allows for juveniles awaiting trial to be held in prison – when all places of safety are full.

UPS JUVENILES: Then they give a remind and your heart you look like you can commit suicide or something.

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V/O: Children’s rights activists say that a place of safety prevents juveniles mixing with older, hardened criminals – as in prison. But many of these youngsters have committed serious crimes… and have already been behind bars. They have the marks, and manner to show for it.

UPS FABIAN: I went to sun city it was fine for me there…they didn’t bully me because I am not a stupid you see. If you go to sun city and they see guys who look like fools in their eyes. Ja they didn’t take me as a fool because I know my story.

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V/O: These are the marks of “the university of crime” - as prison is called by inmates. Some of these tattoos simply glorify a teenager’s view of crime. But there’s a more sinister phenomenon. Some youngsters here bare the markings of prison gangs…. They are the brand of a criminal – on a body barely out of childhood.

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V/O: The time spent awaiting trial may be a blessing in disguise. Incarceration could provide a chance not only for self-pity, but for remorse.

UPS SMALL BOY: I caught a mini bus taxi and on my way I met the police and they stopped me…after stopping me they searched me and didn’t find anything on me. They put me in the van and took me to the police. And then they said I was housebreaking. And I want to go home. I miss my parents…I haven’t seen them in a long time and I miss school.

PAUSE FOR NATSOUND, PICK UP AS SHOT MOVES OUT OF LADY IN WHITE HAT

V/O: Bosasa says the youngsters here don’t sit idly in the sun. They attempt to rehabilitate them while they await trial.

UPS PAPA: correctional service facilities are for people who have been arrested here and that is why we provide them with school and we insist they go to school. Because according to us they have to leave as normal a life as all human beings.

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V/O: Nor do the children at Bosasa fit the common perception… that a violent child criminal is young, poor and black.

UPS WHITEBOY: I was in bed, and then I went to her room…and asked her if we could have sex. We went to another room and we had sex. When we were done we went back to our different rooms. After a few days we broke up I swore at her and she told the house-mother at the orphanage. Then they laid a charge against me.

UPS WHITEBOY: We threatened them with a knife and they gave us the car and we drove off. We had an accident with the car.

UPS PAPA: We getting young people from all walks of life from affluent families from families that are run by grannies. From single mothers from single parenthood families and from the streets.

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V/O: The centre has specially social workers to deal with these “youth at risk with the law.” Their job is not only to prepare the children for court, but to be a sympathetic ear to the children’s problems. These three boys are gay. They find it tough to cope with the macho world in the centre.

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UPS BOYS: They call us names, it’s like they come to us and touch us like women and this funny stuff and sometimes they show us their privates.

UPS BOYS: I totally report to the uncles but sometimes the uncles don’t help they just tell you whatever. I even told the magistrate that the piece of safety is not right, you report something and one day you will get sodomised and they will say you want it but it’s a mistake. One day even now in the rooms you just see them going to sit one side of the room but it’s not a problem. But if I report its like they don’t care. Now it’s fine we are really coping fine since we know how to kick and clap you out. Yes we can kick strong now, we can kick you that you even forget your name. But we are coping the place is totally fine. I just wish I was out that is what I really wish, this is no place for me.

AD BREAK 1 After the break, is prison the best place for a child criminal?

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V/O: Places of safety are not the same as prisons. But discipline is equally strict. This is the Walter Sisulu Place of Safety, outside Soweto. The day starts early for the youngsters awaiting trial. They may have to put in a court appearance. If not, it’s a regular school day. As in prison, there’s an early lock-up.

UPS MURIEL: Wake up…come on wake up. Come Desmond wake up. It’s not early its past five already. There is intimidation but as I am saying it requires a particular person to do this work. Because if you listen to all the things and you listen to their tune and stuff like that then you see yourself in trouble. So you have to like distance yourself but also help out in the situation.

 

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V/O: Like at Bosasa, the youngsters here are not awaiting trial on petty charges, but for serious, violent crimes.

UPS SANDRA: When the children do come into our center we don’t regard them as criminals. I think our believe is that they are here for a very specific reason and our desire is to make sure that they are being given a second chance. And can then reintegrate back into the community.

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V/O: The youngsters here, as at Bosasa, are no mere purse-snatchers.

UPS SANDRA: The ages of admission for both girls and boys vary between 15 and 18 here. The most prevalent for boys at this stage would be murder, attempted murder, rape and robbery.

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V/O: The Walter Sisulu centre is not the final destination for the juvenile offender. They are kept here, sometimes for months at a time, until the courts decide their fate.

UPS SANDRA: It is not a jail and it is not a prison. The youth will stay here for a period of time depending on their next court date and then they will go back to court depending on the outcomes of the court they will either be sent home or to prison. Or to an alternative setting.

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V/O: It’s easy to forget the youth here don’t fit the typical image of a child. They’re awaiting trial for serious offences. Many can tell of a life in prison, as this prison gang insignia shows.

UPS SANDRA: As a result of the circumstances they actually loose their innocence and naivety of being a child. Because they have been exposed to such hush circumstances outside in the community. When they actually come to the Walter Sisulu center, they no longer come in as a child.

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V/O: Muriel Stuart is the centre’s night-shift supervisor. She’s about to go home after a long night. Odd as it may seem, she says she loves what she does, caring for child criminals.

UPS MURIEL: Basically I don’t have kids of my own and that’s why I had a calling to this job. To take care of other people and generally I am very passionate about my job I don’t just do it because I am doing it. I do it it’s like it comes from the bottom of my heart. Like in terms of that it’s a calling.

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UPS MURIEL: As a challenge you need to learn not to be judgemental. I have learned I have my own coping mechanism in terms of that. That I need to accept people for who they are and not to what they did and whatever surrounding that they come from.

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V/O: Yet the staff takes nothing for granted. Even before going to the classroom across the hall, they search for weapons, as in a regular prison.

UPS SANDRA: They are hardened and sometimes not cooperative. Refuse to participate in activities and sometimes its very difficult to try and reach to get over this child.

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V/O: These boys are off to court. A lunch parcel will last them through a day of waiting…and a possible remand.

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V/O: Psychologists have different theories on what it is that drives a child to a life of crime. Poverty, peer pressure, television even, have all been blamed.

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V/O: But their talk, even their walk, suggests otherwise

UPS LITTLE BOY: no i’m not fine. I am very unhappy without my parents.

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V/O: People fed up with rampant crime would have less sympathy.

UPS SANDRA: I think I would appreciate the viewpoints of a public. Obviously we don’t understand the reasons and the nature why children offend. And some of the reasons why they come into the center and some of the services that we offer the children. Would obviously change our perceptions of what they have done.

AD BREAK 2 After the break: can music and words really change a child offender?

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V/O: There are soon to be changes to the law governing child offenders. Once signed into law, the Child Justice bill provides for something called “diversion”… where life-skills training and community service is the only sentence.

UPS LESLEY ANN: Diversion obviously is part of the child justice law which is provides for children for youth development and for young people to be given second chances. And to avoid the stigmatisation they would enter into the prison system.

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V/O: Diversion has been hailed as a way to fast-track child offenders through the justice system. But it’s very specific about who it covers. Only the public prosecutor will decide who goes on the programme. And then, it’s only for non-serious offences.

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V/O: It will cover young offenders like this one, who was arrested for petty theft.

UPS THABO: I used to hang around with the bad pals…they were older than me…they used just to give me a fair duty. I have to go somewhere and you can get money and they took me to the SPAR at pen side and I just went there. They taught me how to steal.

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V/O: An important part of the programme is mentorship. And not by older, more seasoned “coaches in crime’ as so often happens. First-time young offenders will be guided by other youngsters. Those who’ve turned their back on crime through the programme.

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UPS THABO: Being in the street no I got a family now I have to look at my future. And the street won’t make any future for me. Cause I go to the street I earn money but…I earn money but while your education is being small. You are not getting to train your mind.

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V/O: Youngsters like this will, when the bill becomes law, have the chance to change their lives meaningfully. More so, psychologists say, than if they were locked up. Talk may be cheap, but many of the youngsters say they will change.

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UPS MURIEL: We have introduced the diversion system but its working fairly slowly because not many children are being diverted its like one, two or three. I don’t know where the obstacles are maybe they look at where the obstacles are in terms of moving the children out of the system as quickly as possible.

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V/O: Group therapy, relaxing music, and community service will do little for some, though. Those who have done more than snatch a handbag… young offenders so violent the public feels they should be locked away for a long time.

UPS FLORA: To me they are very much important, if I am going to die who is going to lead SA. If all the juveniles have to be in prison.

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V/O: It’s easy to say... but these inmates, who will spend what is left of their youth behind bars, say they have already changed.

UPS SYLVESTER: I was bad but now I am very good.

UPS DOCTOR: I know I have done that but it wasn’t my intention. Its time to move on I wont do it again.

CREDITS

NATSOUND ENDS….

END

WHY DO THEY OFFEND

Variety of reasons, often tied to circumstances in the home, like growing up surrounded by violence.

Sometimes poverty is cited.

Other times even exposure to television cited. One policemen working with a sexual offences unit in Johannesburg’s East Rand said he arrested a juvenile rapist who said he got the idea from a movie he saw on a late-night slot on television.

Then there’s also the “crime coaches”, older more experienced youths who either initiate the youngsters into crime, or use them as look-outs and fall-guys, etc. Often they do it knowing an under age child will get a less harsh sentence.

Coupled with this there’s the confusion of what is the age definition, correctional services says its ……..social welfare says its ……….

Laws relating to bail for adults also apply to children

Strict procedures about having probation officer.

Laws about releasing them into custody of parents or guardians, to be considered by police

DIVERSION

A non-custodial programme for first time juvenile offenders, for the purpose of not resorting to a formal trial. Organizations like NICRO and Khulisa running them. But they’re only for non-scheduled offences, like property crime. Not for serious offences.

One of the things to be formalized in the soon to be law Child Justice Bill, once accepted by Parliament and signed into law, where it provides for this alternative route to a prison sentence for juvenile offenders. Includes life-skills, workshops and mentorships by previous juvenile offenders.

Discretion of the public prosecutor as to who goes on the diversion.

PROBLEM

No real system in place to deal with children who commit violent crimes.

SEX OFFENCES

Increases especially in sexual offences committed by juveniles. Child-Line estimates that 40 percent of all sexual crimes are believed to be committed by under 18’s

YOUTH CENTRES

Care centres set up to accommodate juveniles awaiting trial, to keep them separated from the hardened offenders.