Volume: Volume 9(1) - 2005

Article type: Editorial

2004 saw the promulgation - at last - of the bulk of the Correctional Services Act of 1998, which was intended to bring correctional standards in line with the Constitution of 1996. But in March 2005, the Department of Correctional Services released a new White Paper, setting a new agenda for prisons and prisoners in South Africa.

It cannot be denied that South African corrections were, at the beginning of the decade, in a parlous state. The Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI) was established with the objective of stimulating informed public debate on matters relevant to the criminal justice system. This issue of LDD is devoted to papers based on studies funded by CSPRI.

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