Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Stressful time for staff at prisons
No break for many as department beefs up security under Operation Vala to curb jailbreaks
CHRISTMAS is a stressful period, but the festive season places an extra strain on those living and working at the country’s prisons.
With the festive season upon us, everyone yearns to spend time with friends and family, opening presents, sitting around the table, having a few laughs. For Correctional Services officers and the inmates they are charged with guarding, life inside during the festive season gets a little strenuous.
Every year the Department of Correctional Services initiates Operation Vala, a security campaign aimed at increasing vigilance across the country’s 243 prisons to curb jailbreaks by prisoners who want to spend time with their loved ones on the outside.
Officials from Pollsmoor Correctional Centre had one such offender on December 8, who tried to make a run for it when he was taken to Muizenberg Magistrate’s Court.
The inmate managed to evade Correctional Services officers for 10 minutes inside the court’s holding cells before he was recaptured.
“The 45-year-old male is a sentenced offender who had a further charge to appear for at Muizenberg Magistrate’s Court,” said Correctional Services’ regional spokesmanSimphiwe Xako.
“He was re-arrested 10 minutes after it was noticed that he was missing and he is back in custody.”
The department’s spokesman, Logan Maistry, said they had campaigns throughout the year which placed special emphasis on increased visibility and tightening security measures across prisons.
“As part of government’s safer festive season campaign, the DCS annual Operation Vala security campaign this year kicked off on December 4 and will run until January 12,” he said.
“Operation Vala also results in various unauthorised items being confiscated from offenders as part of search operations to counter inmates smuggling contraband into correctional facilities. These items are smuggled not only by inmates, but also family members as well as officials.
“Smuggling is an assisted process, and we urge the public to play their part by not helping offenders to perpetuate further crimes through smuggling. We remind officials, inmates and families of offenders that they are an accessory to crime by assisting offenders in smuggling.
“We also acknowledge that there are some rotten apples in our department that must be rooted out, who are helping offenders smuggle contraband. Various measures are being used to detect cellphones in correctional facilities including the use of technology to detect cellphones in certain new generation centres. We will continue to ensure that tough action is taken against those found guilty of supplying inmates with contraband.”
Correctional Services offers a range of facilities to its offenders to make sure that their needs are taken care of.
For Pollsmoor’s youngest residents, Christmas morning will either be their first or last with their mothers.
This applies to a group of mothers who are living in prison with their babies, having found out they were pregnant while in prison.
Having given birth while on the inside, the mothers are moved to a separate wing where they stay with their babies for two years before the children are taken to live with relatives.
For one 33-year-old inmate, Christmas morning this year will be bittersweet as she will spend it with only one of her five children.
“Being away from my family is sad; this is the first time I’ve been away from my children during the holidays. His sister and brother have not been able to see him as yet, but this is the situation that we are in and there is noting we can do. We are here and the members who are here with us make it bearable; it is not like we are in the cells,” she said.
“We are going to have a little Christmas of our own here although it would have been a thousand times better if we were home.
“I was in here for a few weeks when I found out I was pregnant and it really hit me hard that I would have him here in prison.”
For another mother, whose child will be going home next year without her, her gift was being granted a chance to spend time with her newborn.
“It is 18 months that I have had him with me; it is my first time in prison. It has become a norm now staying with him here. But it was hard in the beginning having him with me in prison. Knowing that he has done nothing was the worst part,” she said.
“But he will be going home soon and he will be with family and can have a normal happy childhood.
“I am grateful for the time I got to spend with him and bond with him. That is the only Christmas present I will ever want.”