When it matters not whether one is guilty or innocent: Narratives of female children awaiting trial

• Published in: Agenda (Durban) Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 56 - 66
• Main Authors: Mkhize, Gabi, Zondi, Nompumelelo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02-10-2015; Unisa Press and Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: awaiting trial; child justice; female children; first hand narratives; FOCUS; rehabilitation and education
• ISSN: 1013-0950; 2158-978X
• DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2015.1109328

In 2011 we evaluated an educational project at Westville Prison, in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Known as Singakwenza (We can do it), the project is an initiative to rehabilitate children awaiting trial. The three months dedicated to the project afforded us an opportunity to engage at a deeper level with both male and female children awaiting trial. While our task was strictly to assess the programme, the young prisoners awaiting trial were intent on sharing both the stories that saw them locked up, and their experiences of incarceration. These young people expressed an urgent need to be heard - perhaps to ease their pain - and we actively adapted the programme towards being able to accommodate this need. Using feminist standpoint theory to make sense of the self-representation of the experiences narrated by children awaiting trial, we argue that oral narratives are a powerful research method (Thompson and Perks,
1998
) as they provide subjects with a means to speak in their own voices (Harding,
1997
). In other words, a feminist standpoint theoretical framework provides alternative types of epistemologies derived from narratives and self-representations. The narratives volunteered by the youth suggest that the South African judicial system requires attention. The narratives of the female children awaiting trial revealed that the system was unable to differentiate between those whose incarceration was justified, vs those who happened to be 'at a wrong place at a wrong time' when they were put behind bars. Even though we were no legal experts, our presence brought some relief to some of the youths whose cases were, as a result of our interventions, reviewed, leading to their subsequent release. In the article we share the stories of female youths, which highlight the complex situations young offenders find themselves in, and which serve as testimony that not every child behind bars is deserving of such treatment or needs to be removed from society. We back up these accounts with our personal insights as outsiders providing a particular service within the prison walls.