Correctional facility for women ready

THERE are currently 101 female offenders at different correctional facilities countrywide with the exception of Windhoek, where the female section was closed in 2009 to convert it into a rehabilitation programming facility.

The corporate secretary at the Namibian Correctional Services (NCS), deputy commissioner Michael Mulisa said the Cabinet committee on defence, security and international relations authorised the closure of the female section.

“Since then, female offenders were transferred to the Gobabis and Walvis Bay facilities to pave the way for the renovations and alterations to the female facility at Windhoek.

And according to the directorate, the correctional industries and capital projects’ centre will be completed by February 2018,” Mulisa noted.

There are 38 female offenders at the Walvis Bay Correctional Facility, 29 at Oluno (Ondangwa), 20 at Hardap (Mariental), five at Gobabis and nine at the Keetmanshoop facility.

According to research done by the facility, women commit offences because of risks, financial needs or physical and sexual abuse, parental stress and substance abuse.

The research further showed that the top offence committed by women countrywide is murder, with 30 inmates countrywide.

Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm has 13 inmates, seven are incarcerated for dealing in drugs, seven are in for fraud, and five for culpable homicide.

Three women are serving time for rape, three for possession of illicit drugs, another three for stock theft, and three more for concealment of birth and abortion.

The statistics further show that another crime committed by women is attempted murder, for which two women are serving time, two for arson, and another two for the ill-treatment of children.

Two other women are locked up for possession of stolen property, two for theft under false pretences, one for violating a dead body, and one for a sexual offence involving a child.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Meunajo Tjiroze, who is responsible for the mental health and special needs offenders’ division, said the NCS has adopted the most modern international correctional jurisdiction, as they have been realigned and refined to take on the challenges of rehabilitating offenders seriously. She added that most modern correctional jurisdictions now pursue a dual and complementary goal.

“On the one hand, we attempt to use the resources of incarceration sparingly for most serious and persistent offenders, while on the other hand, we attempt to create conducive correctional environments where offenders can begin to learn skills, and adopt new approaches to coping with daily problems of living and changes to their anti-social attitudes.”

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