NPO, union ring alarm as prisons overflow
‘Rehabilitation will be dealt big blow’
The rehabilitation of criminals in SA prisons hangs in the balance due to overcrowding.
The latest statistics of inmates at SA prisons, which were revealed by minister of justice and correctional services Michael Masutha, reflects overcrowding with some facilities having to accommodate inmates more than double their capacity.
Masutha was responding to an opposition MP who had asked for a breakdown of the capacity and population of all prisons across SA as of August 23 2018.
According to Masutha’s response, Modderbee Prison in Benoni, Ekurhuleni, has to accommodate 4 421 inmates with a capacity for only 2 492. Polokwane Correctional Centre in Limpopo was recorded as having a capacity for 557, with 1 782 inmates.
Speaking to Sowetan on Monday, chief executive Soraya Solomon of a nonprofit organisation which deals with rehabilitation, said overcrowding posed a threat to the country’s criminal justice system and the rehabilitation of criminals.
Solomon said throwing people who had committed minor offences into jail increased the inmate population, however, it was counterproductive.
She said minor offenders were more likely to re-offend and start using drugs after being kept in jail with violent criminals.
“Their chances of rehabilitation are much stronger outside than inside an overcrowded prison,” Solomon said on Monday.
She warned that if overcrowding was not resolved, the criminal justice system would struggle to cope.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said the department was not doing enough to resolve the situation.
“They do not even care about rehabilitation which is their core function,” Mamabolo said.
He said while there was a growing number of inmates, prison officials and warders were leaving their jobs at an alarming rate because of poor working conditions.
He said the overcrowding and staff shortages resulted in problems such as violent attacks on staff members who were also forced to accompany inmates to court and hospitals on their own.