Oscar Pistorius, a former Paralympic athlete, will be released from prison on Friday after being granted parole nearly 11 years after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Here’s what Pistorius will face after his release under South Africa’s so-called restorative justice program.
What happens to Oscar Pistorius after he is set free?
Oscar Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs, will be eligible for parole in March 2023, after serving half of his 13-year, five-month sentence for murder.
On November 24, he was granted release, which became effective on January 5.
In November, the South African Department of Correctional Services (DCS) announced that Pistorius would serve the balance of his sentence in the country’s community prisons system.
He will be under DCS monitoring and subject to parole requirements until the end of his sentence in December 2029.
He will be assigned a monitoring officer, who must be kept up to date on Pistorius’s job search and relocation.
Pistorius will also have to attend gender-based violence programs and continue anger management therapy sessions as part of the restrictions, a lawyer for the Steenkamp family said immediately after he was granted parole.
He will most likely reside in Pretoria.
What was the reason for his early release?
A parole board will normally consider several aspects, including the nature of the offense, the probability of reoffending, behavior in prison, physical and mental well-being, and potential threats a prisoner may face if released.
Prior to his release, Oscar Pistorius took part in the restorative justice process, which was established after the end of apartheid to deal with apartheid-era crimes in a more participatory and reconciliatory manner.
It is largely based on how indigenous cultures dealt with crime long before Europeans colonized South Africa, with the goal of bringing impacted parties in a crime together to find closure rather than simply punishing perpetrators.
A victim-offender discussion, which brings parties harmed by a crime together to try to reach closure, is an essential component of the restorative justice approach. Participation is entirely voluntary.
Pistorius was transferred to a prison near where the Steenkamp family was staying in late 2021, ahead of reconciliation negotiations aimed at a possible early release.
On June 22, 2022, he and Reeva’s father, the late Barry Steenkamp, took part in the victim-offender discourse.
What has the reaction been to his early release?
In November, Steenkamp’s family lawyer stated that they were not surprised by the parole decision, which came after Pistorius had served a portion of his sentence.
In the days leading up to the parole hearing, Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, issued a statement in which she stated that she was not persuaded Pistorius had been rehabilitated. She did, however, state that she had no problems to his release.
June Steenkamp praised the parole board’s attempts to involve the victims after Pistorius was given parole.
Pistorius’ attorney and family did not respond.