A former prison warden works with young South Africans to free them from a cycle of drugs, crime ...

[tabatha]

Filmmaker: Maanda Ntsandeni

Each year in South Africa's Cape Flats region, more than 1,000 youths are released from prison on parole. Many of these parolees will return to jail within a few weeks - unable to re-integrate into their communities or to avoid being caught up in the vicious circle of gangs, drugs and crime that is life for many in the townships.

But, for a lucky few there is an alternative. Solomon Madikane is a former prison warden who was so frustrated by the endless cycle of law-breaking and incarceration that he left his job and set up the Realistic prisoner reintegration programme in 2004. Based in the Cape Flats townships, Realistic has an extraordinary success rate: 95 per cent of the parolees who complete the programme have successfully turned their back on crime.

From the early days of Realistic, Solomon has been motivated by a desire to give parolees a second chance.

In this film, Witness goes to the Cape Flats to observe the work Solomon and his co-workers do for some of the most disadvantaged youth in South Africa. We meet two of the Realistic parolees - Thabo and Thando - and learn just how strong they have to be to leave the attractions of a life of drugs and crime behind.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2012/04/2012499289369603.html

[fredamae]

1. This is what Harm Reduction Education does! n/t

[Uncle Joe]

2. An instance of epiphany

"Like many South Africans frustrated by the country's soaring crime rates, I was deeply prejudiced towards anybody who had served time in prison - choosing to focus on my belief that they deserved punishment while overlooking the fact that they had served their dues behind bars.

But on that day in Pollsmoor Prison, when a woman in her forties stood up to tell her imprisoned husband of the difficulties she encountered in raising their children alone, I came to understand that crime takes its toll not only on the victims but also on the families of the perpetrators.

The message that woman conveyed was that her sons, raised without a father's presence in their lives, were now following in their father's footsteps while she struggled to assert any kind of authority over them."

Thanks for the thread, tabatha.