Prison admits to challenges
THE Department of Correctional Services has conceded that it has overcrowding and understaffing challenges, but still insists that more heads should roll following the escape of 16 inmates from the Johannesburg Prison.
This after two more officials from the prison, also known as “Sun City”, were suspended on Tuesday, bringing to seven the number of prison warders placed on precautionary suspension in less than a week.
At least two of the officials are facing criminal charges.
The department’s provincial spokesperson, Mocheta Monama, said: “The Department of Correctional Services acknowledges the challenges of overcrowding and understaffing. However, it is also our responsibility to ensure that our facilities are centres of rehabilitation.
“We will continue to root out… unlawful activities in order to maintain a high standard of safety and security.”
He said the seven officials would be “paid full salaries, excluding allowances, pending the outcome of the investigation”. On April 9, 16 awaiting trial prisoners escaped through a pipe shaft and broke through a wall in the Medium B section of the prison.
At least seven of the prisoners were up for murder.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said the union viewed the department’s approach to the matter as a “discredited and exposed methodology of scapegoating to hide their self-inflicted failures”.
“The section within which these awaiting trialists escaped houses a prison population of 600, all of which are manned by eight officials during the week and only four over weekends. The infrastructural integrity of the centre has dilapidated beyond living conditions with permanent water leakages. This is part of the reasons why the escaped inmates could have easily penetrated the said wall.”
He said a cell meant to house 18 inmates had more than 50 inmates. “So the challenge of overcrowding and understaffing (is) a contributing factor. This means that correctional officials are left unable to manage the affairs of the centre in a satisfactory manner and their safety is always of concern.”
However, Monama said there were 714 inmates in the section. He would not reveal the number of officials on duty on weekdays and weekends and how many were on duty on the day of the escape, saying there was a “security risk involved in the information”.
Monama said 17 cells were in use on the day of the escape and each accommodated 42 prisoners.
He said at least seven escapees were still at large. Two of the 16 men were shot and killed in KwaZulu-Natal while others were rearrested.