29/06/2004 13:52 - (SA)

Cape Town - Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Tuesday he was concerned about the increasing number of young people committing crimes.

Introducing debate on his budget vote in the national council of provinces, he said more than 73 000 young people in the "prime of their lives" were in prisons, with 26 781 between the ages of 18 to 25 years awaiting trial.

"Some may indeed be there due to the lack of alternative facilities for children awaiting trial.

"Others are there because they have been charged with and sentenced for heinous crimes that include murder, rape and drug abuse," Balfour said.

This had increased the responsibilities on correctional services and the social development department, which had a significant role to play in providing for the care of children in distress.

Provincial social development departments would increasingly have to manage places of safety for young offenders as an alternative to being placed in correctional centres.

Balfour said it remained his department's responsibility, as well as that of national and provincial political leaders, to convince the public that correction and rehabilitation did not translate into "soft-peddling on crime".

"We need to convince our constituents that correction and rehabilitation are aimed at ensuring the safety and security of the public.

"They must understand that we cannot release angry young people into society who have had no benefit of correction and rehabilitation. If we continue to do that, it is at the risk of increasing levels of repeat offending.

"I want to extend a hand to communities to assist me in ensuring that intervention and rehabilitation programmes become compulsory for young offenders.

"We cannot leave them at the mercy of the masters of crime who operate within our correctional centres.

"It is the youth to whom we have the highest moral obligation to correct their offending behaviour and to steer them away from the influence and control of habitual inmates," Balfour said.