The most hardened prisoners can be redeemed

For many law-abiding citizens, it would be difficult to feel empathy for the convicted prisoners who rioted on Sunday at a prison in Pretoria.

After all, many of those protesting were serving terms of life imprisonment … the sort of punishment meted out by society only for the most heinous of crimes.

After amendments to the law in 2004, the minimum mandatory time on a “life” sentence is 25 years. Only after this time can the convicts apply for parole.

To those who have been robbed and raped or whose loved ones have been murdered, it may seem that justice is being done because “lifers” must serve at least 25 years behind bars before they can contemplate being released.

But there is the argument that prison should be, as the department of correctional services’s name implies, a place where criminal and anti-social behaviour can be corrected.

The adjunct to this argument is that anyone can be reformed … and that anyone can be forgiven.

Prisons Minister Michael Masutha said that since he took office in 2014, 291 “lifers” had been released on parole.

This group had the “lowest rate of non-compliance with parole conditions” and kept to the straight and narrow once free. Perhaps showing mercy can have some beneficial effects.