Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)

Shocking reality of Pollsmoor Prison conditions

- CARYN DOLLEY

A COURT case focusing on Pollsmoor Prison has lifted the lid on appalling conditions inmates have been forced to endure, with one detainee saying unprovoked wardens have used electricit­y to shock him.

Others have complained they are only let out of overcrowde­d cells for an hour every few weeks, are given too little food and are left unsupervis­ed for hours, which leads to violence.

“The ‘ gangboys’ sell the meat to the detainees that have cash and want to purchase extra. I have also seen them give the correction­al officials meat and bread. We get what is left…

“Some correction­al officials treat us badly… They have beaten me. On several occasions they have woken me up by shocking me with an electric shock shield,” an inmate, a member of one of the notorious numbers gangs, said in an affidavit.

Statistics in court papers also paint a worrying picture of overcrowde­d prisons in the province.

Pollsmoor spokesman Lewies Davids this week acknowledg­ed overcrowdi­ng, saying there were 4 766 detainees in the prison at the start of the month. But he saidt the department was addressing the challenge, which he blamed on high volumes of cases and slow turn- around times by the courts.

The exact section of Pollsmoor prison at the centre of the court matter is the Pollsmoor Remand Detention Facility, establishe­d four years ago.

Sonke Gender Justice, a non-profit organisati­on represente­d by Lawyers for Human Rights, has approached the Western Cape High Court to declare the government has failed to adequately provide for inmates.

It also wants the court to order that the government compile a detailed turnaround plan to improve the situation, and the head of Pollsmoor provide weekly cell inspection reports from December 2012.

In September last year Pollsmoor made news when a report by Constituti­onal Court Judge Edwin Cameron exposed inhumane conditions and the sickly appearance of inmates.

Weeks later it emerged there was an outbreak of leptospiro­sis, a disease carried in rat urine, at Pollsmoor. Two prisoners died.

The outbreak prompted a mass evacuation of the facility, which was then fumigated. But two months into the evacuation, numbers are still extremely high.

In an affidavit filed as part of the Sonke Gender Justice move, its executive director, Dean Peacock, referred to statistics from the Correction­al Services Department.

“The population on 16 November 2015 was 238 percent,” he said. “Moreover, it is likely that the population at (Pollsmoor’s detention facility) will continue to increase once the fumigation process is completed.”

Peacock described the conditions at Pollsmoor's remand section as “appalling”.

“The conditions… fall short of constituti­onal standards…

“This applicatio­n seeks to remedy the government's failure to address the long-standing poor conditions of detention at Pollsmoor (the remand section), in relation specifical­ly to provide exercise to awaiting trial inmates, the poor ablution facilities, nutrition, accommodat­ion and health services.”

In several affidavits, inmates detailed the conditions they experience­d.

One said: “On average, we are permitted outside the cell for exercise once a month for about an hour. But in the last month we have not been out in the yard at all.”

Another said he shared a cell with about 70 others. “There are a lot of people that sleep on the floor. They must sleep on their side so that there is space for everyone,” he said.

“There is one toilet for all of us, but the flush system is broken.”

caryn.dolley@inl.co.za

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