Introducing the Centre of Excellence Project

Introduction

The Department of Correctional Services has been mandated to translate the vision of being “one of the best in delivering correctional services with integrity and commitment to excellence” into an operational reality. It seeks to achieve this by delivering a series of strategically positioned and prioritised programmes and projects. One such project was the Centre of Excellence project which was launched in August 2005.

The Department of Correctional Services has identified 36 correctional centres and community corrections offices across various regions to serve as Centres of Excellence where an environment will be created for the provision of holistic integrated programmes and services to the offender and persons under community corrections, in order to produce socially responsible individuals. In a Centre of Excellence, the department is committed to the adequate provision of all rehabilitation and correctional programmes and services directed at the offender. The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) seeks to eliminate overcrowding as an inhibitor of effective service provision to the offender in these centres.

The CoE Project has been functioning for a few years now and much has been achieved. The Regions report progress on a quarterly basis in an agreed upon format. During 2008 a centre level performance rating system has been developed, based on a set number of indicators, derived from the Strategic Plan. All CoE’s were rated and preliminary scores have been generated.

The CoE Project will now be moving to the next phase. The Project will be formalised in terms of the DCS Portfolio Management Strategy of the department. The CoE Project has been formally registered.

A Centre of Excellence can best be described as a Correctional Centre or a Community Corrections Office (ComCor), where all services, programmes, resources and human potential and capital are directed at providing a place of new beginnings for each and every offender, a place where every member is motivated, resourced, skilled, developed and supported to become a rehabilitator.

What is a CoE?

The Centre of Excellence concept aims to create an environment that helps in providing holistic integrated services to the offender to produce a socially responsible person. The DCS also seeks to guarantee the existence of competent personnel to provide the range of services that have to be delivered to an offender.

In essence, the Centre of Excellence concept represents the fundamental starting phase in which the end objective is to transform all South Africa's Correctional Centres and Community Corrections Offices into effective Rehabilitation-Centred institutions where the White Paper is fully implemented. The Department intends achieving this through a systematic process to successfully implementing the prescripts and ideals of the White Paper on Corrections into sustainable practice in selected centres and community corrections offices through the creation of conducive correctional environments, which are characterized by the:

* Provision of holistic, integrated and needs-based services to offenders within needs-driven facilities aimed at producing socially responsible persons;
* Effective management and control over all critical challenges that could have a significant impact on rehabilitation;
* Presence of competent Rehabilitation-orientated personnel who are recruited, trained, retrained and developed in the "Ideal Correctional Official";
* Meaningful support for its overall Corrections-mandate from highly functional external partnerships with families, communities and society at large
* Promotion of community involvement through the quality assurance processes