Judge shocked by bad state of prison

CONSTITUTIONAL Court Judge Edwin Cameron has slammed the inhumane conditions in Pollsmoor Prison.

In a recently published report on a visit he paid the notorious facility in April, he said he was “deeply shocked” by the “extent of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, sickness, and emaciated psychical appearance of detainees, and the overall deplorable living conditions were profoundly disturbing”.

The inspection was part of the prison visits and monitoring programme of the Constitutional Court.

The report details abominable conditions in the awaiting-trial section of the prison. The visited cells were filthy and cramped due to severe overcrowding – at 300 percent it is the highest rate of overcrowding in the country.

There was no running hot water, systemic problems with plumbing caused blocked drains, which meant some inmates had to use a bucket to flush the toilet, and a sink to bathe and urinate in. Detainees were sleeping three to a bed or on the floor. Bedsheets and blankets were either missing or filthy and lice-infested.

“Some detainees displayed rashes, boils, wounds and sores to us,” wrote Justice Cameron, who was accompanied by his clerks and 15 officials from the Department of Correctional Services (DCS).

The awaiting-trial inmates also complained of hunger; they received their second and last meal at 2pm, which meant they went hungry for the rest of the day and night. Several inmates claimed they hadn’t been let out of their cells for up to four weeks.

In 2012, the Constitutional Court held the government accountable for the negligence in tackling the spread of TB in Pollsmoor Prison, after former remand detainee Dudley Lee sued the government for his infection with the pulmonary disease. Three years later, not much seems to have changed.

The DCS regional commissioner, Delekile Klaas, who accompanied Justice Cameron, stated that the inspection demanded “immediate responsive action”.

Serious staffing shortages, as well as a fraught relationship with the Department of Public Works, were some of the causes he highlighted.

Hopkins is an investigative journalist working for the Wits Justice Project