Exploring Management of Offenders Education for Optimum Rehabilitation

This study explores the management of offenders’ education for optimum rehabilitation in a Correctional Centre in South Africa. Education management is scrutinized in relation to the self-concept of offenders and their future as parolees striving for reintegration into society is envisioned. It is located in the qualitative paradigm, using a questionnaire designed to gather respondents’ demographic profiles, and extract factors that influence crime propensity and those that enable amenability to rehabilitation through education. It was targeted at functionally literate participants comprising 16 offenders and 5 officials. Findings are that bottom up policy driven transformation is crucial to remove barriers hindering the exercise of effective education management because the manner in which offenders’ education is managed impacts on their receptiveness, thus their reintegration into society. The report concludes with recommendations that have a great potential for future research in the context of correctional education management, as well as implementation and monitoring of such management through policy in order to achieve rehabilitation.