Better oversight of prison management and staff needed

The serious failures of SA prisons have been well documented over many years. During the Covid-19 pandemic we learnt that they weren’t just overcrowded and understaffed, but also had poor sanitation and ventilation and inmates had insufficient nutrition, health care and recreational time. Prisons became hotbeds for the spread of the virus. Not surprisingly, given the nature of the crimes that resulted in incarceration, they are dangerous places, inhabited by dangerous people, where assault, rape and murders do happen.

Between 2015 and 2018 there were 28 murders in prisons. There were also 78 suicides in the same period, which tells a story of its own. These were people who were unable to handle the degrading, undignified and harmful treatment meted out to them.

While any prison system can argue it is difficult to police the inmates’ treatment of one another, there must surely be an onus on correctional services staff to at least try to ensure they are protected.

Instead, it seems that some correctional services staff are themselves often abusers of inmates or the facilitators of crime within the prisons.

This publication has documented a few reports which indicate this is more commonplace than it should be.

This week we reported on women inmates at the East London Correctional Centre being regularly and seriously beaten by warders, as well as being forced to provide free labour for the benefit of warders.

If they refused or complained, they were isolated or beaten.

Their stories were confirmed by a warder who had resigned precisely because of this illegal, exploitive and inhumane behaviour.

What a world we live in — where good people are discouraged from serving the public and those who do wrong by us retain their employment, especially in the environs of a prison where, in theory at least, attempts should be made to rehabilitate criminals rather than reinforce their behaviour.

SA has about 240 prisons, 34,000 staff and almost 200,000 inmates.

While no system is perfect, we have to do better by those awaiting trial or serving time for crimes committed.

It is not as though correctional services is unaware of the problems they face.

Its own report on Mangaung Prison — from which the notorious rapist Thabo Bester escaped — showed an institution where staff reportedly facilitated drug and sex rings and organised hits.

Even though this prison was a public-private partnership, it costs half a billion rand a month in public money.

The correctional services department remains obliged to ensure it is properly run.

The department must ensure better oversight of its prison management and staff to ensure professionalism, integrity and accountability.

We have to do better by those awaiting trial or serving time for crimes committed