Parole officers are drowning in cases

South Africa’s parole officers are overburdened. On average across the country, there are 87 parolees/probationers per monitoring officer. The Department of Correctional Services’ ideal ratio is 30 per officer.

Four years ago, the ratio was 58 parolees per officer. The number of monitoring officials nationwide has halved since 2022, from 1,873 to 933, while the caseload has only slightly diminished.

KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Eastern Cape all have more than 100 parolees/probationers per officer.

When a prisoner is granted parole or probation, they are assigned a parole monitoring officer. Usually, they will remain under the supervision of the parole officer until the end of their prison sentence.

The parole officer is supposed to make contact via telephone and pay visits to the parolee’s home or workplace to ensure that parole conditions are being met. Parolees may not move house without permission and must participate in rehabilitation programmes.

Of the 82,093 parolees/probationers in the department’s current case load, 29,320 (35%) are absconders, and 52,860 are “active” parolees or probationers.

The department has told Parliament that the number of absconders is a cumulative figure that includes people who have died since absconding, or whose prison sentences have since ended. They didn’t specify the number of absconders who are still supposed to be monitored by officials.

Over the past five years, a total of 8,303 people have absconded – an average of about 1,600 per year. About 6,000 absconders were found by the department’s “track and trace” team.

More than 3,000 parolees committed crimes in the last financial year, and almost 7,000 had their parole or probation revoked.

The Department of Correctional Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Chart produced by The Outlier in partnership with GroundUp

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