Community safety, offender re-entry and local government

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of “Community safety, offender re-entry and local government” in South Africa. The impact of the release of large numbers of prisoners back into society on a monthly basis poses particular challenges to the public and private sectors as well as civil society. It is of particular concern that such persons are prone to re-offending and, as such, any measures that could reduce or mitigate the risk of such occurrence demands serious consideration. It is argued that local government structures are potentially well positioned as the organ of the state that could most effectively facilitate the coordination and provisioning of resources and interventions with exoffenders to reduce the risk of re-offending.