Abstract:
The documentation following below refers to a project proposal the beginnings of which date back to the initiative by Dr Bruyns, who began to gather data pertaining to the broader issue of pre-trial detention in 2015. Then, together with 3rd year students of correctional management, a first data set was created, shedding some light on the conditions and experiences of detainees in police holding cells. Another initiative from about the same time by Dr Schulz brought about the idea of criminal justice section anchor projects, broader in nature, which would integrate criminal justice honours students’ honours projects. Students under the theme of the anchor project would prepare research proposals, which would cover one or more research objectives of the anchor project. Following the data collection for the anchor project, in which students would participate under supervision of their supervisors as student research assistants, sample of data from the entire data set would be provided to each participating students, who after analysis and interpretation of the data would prepare their criminal justice honours mini-thesis. This would create win-win situations, because ethical research procedures, application procedures for a research permit from National Commission of Science Research and Technology (NCRST) would only be necessary in respect of the anchor project; stakeholders would benefit from one broader and deeper investigation and have to only focus on one project instead of multiple smaller project with little benefit in terms of progress of actionable scientific knowledge; with the support of student research assistants, resources required for the execution of the project would be at hand. Finally, in 2021 Drs Schulz and Bruyns put pen to paper and crafted the anchor project Rethinking Pre-trial Detention (PTD) in Namibia in parallel with 23 honours students working on their proposals under the same theme. The product is hereto attached. It has been submitted with an application for research permit to NCRST.
