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The Integration of Ex-Offenders in South Africa Based on the Contemporary Chinese Model: an Interdisciplinary Study

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The Integration of Ex-Offenders in South Africa Based on the Contemporary Chinese Model: an Interdisciplinary Study The Integration of ex-offenders in South Africa based on the contemporary Chinese model: An Interdisciplinary Study Casper Lötter 2014218644 Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements in respect of the Doctoral Degree in Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of the Free State January 2018 Supervisor: Prof. Bert Olivier 2 There are possibilities for me, certainly; but under what stone do they lie? Franz Kafka In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies. One has to live without getting tired, one must look forward, and feed on one’s living reserves, which oblivion no less than memory produces. Boris Pasternak 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 8 DECLARATION 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 CHAPTER ONE 12 Problem identification in the Context of the Literature Review Background 12 Criminology and Penology 13 Rationale 14 Rehabilitation 15 My critique on rehabilitation /reintegration studies 18 Laudible Intervention 20 Emancipatory ideal 22 Recidivism 24 Reintegration critically appraised 26 Stigma as the seminal link 27 Japan and the PRC as communitarian societies: the rationale 36 Why China and not an African community? 36 Delimitations 37 Comparative penology’s justification 38 Sociological understanding of deviance or crime 39 Explainations for stigma 44 Marginalization and stigmatization 46 Authorizing my own theoretical position 46 Research Question and five objectives 48 Ontology and epistemology 48 Situatedness 49 Research paradigm and approach 50 CHAPTER TWO Part One: Primary Methodology and Research Design 52 1. Research Design and Conceptual Framework -Conceptual Framework 53 -Research Design 55 Culture Reconsidered 58 2. Primary methodology: Critical Theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School 61 3 4 2.1 Critique of ideology 62 -Illustration 64 -Gerhardt’s notion of a caring society 65 -Neurobiology 66 -Attachment paradigm 67 -Capitalism feeds off strict authoritarian parenting 68 -Ethics of care 69 -Quality of the relationship 70 -Efficacy of the concept of ideology critique 71 2.2 Interdisciplinarity 72 -Solutions to complex problems 73 2.3 Praxis 74 2.4 Habermas’s contribution to critical theory 74 -Social evolution 80 -Productive Forces 81 -Foucault’s ‘genealogical’ turn 81 -Rational Reconstruction as Societal Integration 83 -Critical theory and reintegration 84 CHAPTER TWO Part Two: Secondary Methodology and Tools 85 1. Autoethnography as a complementary methodology 85 -Poststructuralist critique 85 -Many ways of embracing autoethnography 86 -Emancipatory possibilities 87 -Enabling marginalized voices 88 -The importance of epiphanies 89 -Cultural artifacts as clues in research 90 -Ethics 91 -Objectivity 92 -Generalizability of research findings 93 -The issue of vulnerability 94 -Boucher identifies five pointers 94 -Suitable as a complementary methodology 95 2. Tools -Poststructuralist thought 96 -Poststructuralist approach to theory 97 -Dawkins’s concept of ‘meme’ 98 -Saussure’s contribution to linguistics 98 -Lacanian metaphor ‘the signifying chain’ 99 4 5 -Derrida’s ‘radical destruction of the context’ 100 -Rancière’s illustrative value 101 -Edward Said’s travelling theory 104 -The Gadamer-Habermas debate 105 -Cross-cultural analysis 106 -African recognition theory 108 -The receptor approach 110 CHAPTER THREE An Ideology Critique of the Prison-Industrial-Complex 114 The perspective of ideology critique 115 Inequality and incarceration 117 The correctional mandate of three prison administrations 122 The prison-industrial-complex 125 Two objections to my thesis 126 Kropotkin, Darwin and Habermas: is capitalism the best possible option? 134 Reiman’s ‘Pyrrhic defeat theory’ 138 Discredited model of human behaviour 142 Class, not race, in South Africa 143 The ideological legitimation of the status quo ante 148 The debilitating effects of stigma 152 Reflective autonomy and deliberative democracy 154 Loss of agency, assaults on the self and degradation 155 How Stigma impacts reflexive autonomy 157 Concluding remarks 162 CHAPTER FOUR The Chinese Road Map to Re-entry 165 Prison redundant in the West 165 Increasingly repressive global penal policy 166 Prison doubling as a warehouse 166 The Chinese way 167 Four topics explored in this chapter 167 -Braithwaite’s contribution to criminology 168 -Justification for case studies 172 -An exploration of the historical course of criminal justice in the PRC, 1949-1996 181 -Intermediate reflections 196 Concluding remarks 199 5 6 CHAPTER FIVE Part One: Transplantation to Own Soil: Analysis 201 The caring society and Ubuntu 201 My research question 202 Chapter divided into four phases 203 Neoliberal global policy regime 204 1. Preliminary Reflections on Policy Formulation 204 -Good practice(s) on corrections 205 -Equality Act 206 -Rehabilitation as a ‘memeplex’ transplanted to own soil 207 -How features of Ubuntu can help 208 2. Early childhood intervention 208 - Neural pathways created during early childhood 209 -Chinese rehabilitation remoulded 209 -Legal education for the general public 210 -Peace committees 210 -Re-evaluating imprisonment as a sentencing option 211 3. Rehabilitation efforts during incarceration 212 -Prison labour a conundrum 213 -Writing an autobiography ‘on the inside’ 214 -Benefits of writing an autobiography 215 -The therapeutic value of companion animals during incarceration 217 -Sandra Gregory’s incarceration in Thailand 218 -Animal assisted therapy 218 -Building the case 222 -Rehabilitation in a new context 223 4. Effective resettlement with special reference to stigma 225 -Sustainable resettlement 225 -Contextual factors 226 -Change from the periphery 228 -The re-initiation ceremony 230 CHAPTER FIVE Part Two: Well-being and the ‘care of the self’ : Interpretation & Discussion 234 The case for offenders’ well-being structured around ‘care of the self’ 234 The formation of new subjectivities 236 Foucault and the emancipatory developmental paradigm 238 Self-esteem 2 40 Authentic self-determination 242 6 7 Spot the stereotype 247 Confidence 248 Trust as social capital 251 Meaning and paradoxical intensity 255 Stigma maturation 256 Interventions from the centre 257 Concluding remarks 258 CHAPTER SIX Conclusion and Recommendations 260 Reminder of my research question 260 Factual and conceptual findings 262 Contribution to knowledge 263 Secondary findings 265 Generalizability 266 A Critique of my Research 267 Suggestions for further research 269 Recommendations 270 REFERENCES 275 7 8 ABSTRACT This study aims to understand the process of stigmatization, marginalization and discrimination visited on ex-offenders after completion of their sentences. With reference to scholars such as Foucault, Festinger and Lerner, I problematize the notion that ‘collateral consequences’ (essentially stigma) should of necessity follow ex-offenders for the rest of their lives. Instead of attempting yet another intervention project (most of which have failed dismally), I have decided to discover what we can learn from the Chinese (and other cultures) on integration – an idea vouched for by both Habermas and Durkheim. This work is an interdisciplinary study since it is a ‘complex problem’ which requires as many inputs as possible and consequently I strive to be as inclusive as possible. To this end, I also make eclectic use of theory as opposed to a thorough-going singular theoretical application. This inclusivity also relates to my sources, where I have consulted scholars of both the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries who have had something of value to say on the matter. In this respect, John Braithwaite’s seminal distinction between ‘integrative shaming’ and ‘stigmatizing shaming’ cultures was invaluable. The former prevents crime by resettling ex- offenders while the latter is ‘criminogenic’ and ‘counter-productive’ by driving ex-offenders away from mainstream culture through stigma. In this process the societal management of shame (resulting in either integration or stigma) has profound consequences. South Africa, a stigmatizing shaming culture, has rates of recidivism of between 85%-94% while the Peoples’ Republic of China (PRC), an integrative shaming culture, presents only 6%-8%. My research problem is how to integrate returning ex-offenders in South Africa’s stigmatizing shaming culture, based on the contemporary Chinese model, i.e. how to incorporate the best features of an integrative shaming culture into a stigmatizing shaming culture, specifically onto home soil in post-apartheid South Africa (if this proves to be possible). In order to enable the transplantation process both in time and space (an idea gleaned from Derrida), I have developed nine tools to assist me with this procedure. These tools may be of value to other researchers who may wish to duplicate the procedure along a different trajectory. By employing ‘secondary data analysis’ as my tool of data collection, I consider a number of original field work studies which were done in the PRC relating to the period 1949-1996, when the integrative shaming culture on the mainland was at its peak. In my 8 9 penultimate chapter but one I come to the realization that certain features of stigmatizing shaming cultures (these societies’ ‘diseased’ nature, the prison-industrial-complex, the ‘selfish’ society and their inability to grasp its own ‘desire’, etc.) preclude the sensible fusing of these two cultures, which might well be impossible because the respective ‘natures’ (selfish vs caring) of these two societies are mutually
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