1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION

• Establishment of the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons
• Statutory mandate
• Composition

1. STATISTICAL INFORMATION

• Children in prisons
• Juveniles in prisons
• Youth Correctional Centres

1. CONDITIONS

• Overcrowding
• Awaiting-trial prisoners
• Pollsmoor, Durban Westville and Grootvlei prisons.

1. THE WAY FORWARD

• Legislative amendments
• Independent Prison Visitors
• Awareness Work

1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons (Inspectorate) was established as a statutory independent body in terms of section 89 of the Correctional Services Act no.111 of 1998. The Inspectorate has been mandated by Parliament to monitor and report on the treatment of prisoners and on conditions in prisons. It gathers information from visit to prisons by Independent Prison Visitors (IPV’s), by it’s staff, by judges of the High Court and from members of the public and NGO’s.

The Inspectorate stands under the control and authority of the Inspecting Judge (Judge J J Fagan) who is appointed by the President.

The Inspectorate comprises four Units namely, Administrative Support Unit who is responsible for the day to day running of the organization including financial, logistical and administrative support.

Legal Services Unit who is responsible to deal with unresolved prisoner complaints submitted to the Inspectorate by IPV’s, prisoners, family members, NGO’s etc.

IPV Unit who is responsible for the appointment of IPV’s at all prisons in terms of the provisions of Section 92 of the Act.

IPV’s are lay persons in the field of prisoners’ rights who have been identified, through a process of publicly calling for nominations and consulting with community organizations, as people who are interested in the promotion of the social responsibility and human development of prisoners.

The functions of IPV’s are to deal with the complaints of prisoners by:

• Regular visits to the prison;
• Interviewing prisoners in private;
• Recording prisoner complaints in an official diary and monitoring the manner in which the complaints are dealt with; and
• Discussing complaints with the Head of Prison with a view to resolving issues internally or sending such unresolved complaints to the Inspecting Judge.

The Inspectors Unit who is responsible for the implementation of legislative amendments such as Section 63A of the Criminal Procedure Act. They are also responsible to facilitate prison inspections in order for the Inspecting Judge to report on the treatment of prisoners and on conditions in prisons. They also undertake specific investigations where necessary.

2. STATISTICAL INFORMATION

• Children in prison (7 to 17 years old)

Gender: Female 94

Male 3867

• Juveniles in prison (18 to 20 years old)

Gender: Female 436

Male 23 378

Their sentences range from 0 – 6 months (801) to life (26).

They are held in youth correctional centres and prisons all over the country. There are 13 youth correctional centres viz

Western Cape Brandvlei 369 (Capacity 348)

Hawequa 383 ( 225)

Drakenstein Med B 685 ( 474)

Pollsmoor Med A (mainly 2029 (1111)

unsentenced)

Gauteng Leeuwkop Medium B 729 (723)

Baviaanspoort Emthonjeni 555 (640)

Boksburg Medium B 417 (274)

North West Rustenburg 153 (182)

KwaZulu-Natal Durban 1124 (629)

Ekuseni 636 (600)

Free State Groenpunt 206 (255)

Kroonstad (only sentenced 86 (67)

children)

Mpumalanga Barberton 374 (517)

7 746 (6 045)

The youth centres house 7742 children and juveniles. The rest (21 054) are kept in ordinary prisons of which about 60 have sections that accommodate young offenders only.

The growth in the number of children and juveniles in prison is most disturbing. In the seven years since January 1995 (date from which statistical information is available), the numbers of unsentenced children and juveniles have increased by 209% and 155% respectively and the sentenced children and juveniles by 178% and 49% respectively. .

Limited statistical information is available on disabled prisoners. The information that we have indicates that there are 183 prisoners in prison who have "disabilities" recorded. These vary from an amputated finger to paralysis and blindness.

Disabled prisoners are kept amongst the general prison population. Some are accommodated in the hospital sections of prisons depending on their disability.

The conditions under which prisoners are held will be dealt with by Mr. Mentoor. Mr Clifford Fritz and Ms Lumka Mdingi will report on the specific conditions at Pollsmoor Prison, whilst Ms Dudu Luthuli will report on Durban-Westville and Grootvlei prisons.

3. CONDITIONS

Our prisons are severely overcrowded. Reports from IPV’s described the awful treatment that some prisoners have to endure due to overcrowded prisons. Our visits to prisons confirmed this. Built to accommodate 110 175 prisoners, the prisons housed 177 620 prisoners in July, which meant that approximately 70 000 prisoners were kept in prisons without the necessary infrastructure such as toilets, showers, beds, etc. being available to them. This is worsened by the uneven distribution of prisoners resulting from the need to separate different genders and categories. Whilst some prisons had an occupancy rate of 100%, many were over 200% with one reaching an astonishing 416%. There are gross overcrowding in numerous prisons, which leeds to detention under horrendous conditions, especially for awaiting-trial prisoners.

AWAITING TRIAL PRISONERS

The Department of Correctional Services cannot be blamed for the overcrowding, as the explosion in prisoner numbers could not have been foreseen. Whilst the sentenced prisoner population slowly increased from 92 581 in January 1995 to 108 307 in April 2000 i.e. 17% growth, the number of awaiting-trial prisoners almost tripled from 24 265 in January 1995 to 63 964 in April 2000 i.e. 164% growth.

This growth amongst awaiting-trial prisoners severely affected the children and juveniles in prisons. Currently 12 878 children and juveniles are kept in prison awaiting the finalization of their cases. The Department of Correctional Services is restricted by a lack of resources and statutory mandates to adequately care for these children. Awaiting-trial prisoners are as a rule not included in programmes such as education, welfare, rehabilitation, vocational etc. The effect of this is that thousands of awaiting-trial prisoners including children and juveniles are kept in prison on an average of about 4 months awaiting the finalization of their cases during which time they are mostly not involved in the above-mentioned programmes.

This problem is further worsened by the fact that awaiting-trial children/juveniles are in most cases incarcerated in the same building as the adult prisoners. Segregation of juveniles and children do take place in line with statutory requirements. However, because of infrastructure total segregation between children, juveniles and adults is not always possible resulting in cases of human rights abuses such as assaults, intimidation etc.

4. IMPROVEMENTS

Notwithstanding all the above some improvements have already taken place and continue to take place in the combined efforts of government and NGO’s to deal with the overcrowded conditions in our prisons.

As regards the conditions at those prisons indicated by the Chairperson, I hand over to Ms Luthuli for a briefing on the summary of conditions at the Durban Westville and Grootvlei prisons.

Prison: Durban Westville Juvenile

Centre.

Statistical Information :

Approved accommodation: 629

Lock-up total : 1 041

Overcrowded by : 165%

IPV : Mr Ntombela

Since the appointment of the IPV at this prison during February 2002, he has spend about 296 hours visiting the prison. During those visits he conducted 1 175 interviews with prisoners and recorded 1 475 complaints.

Nature and number :

The majority of complaints were about food (197), followed by general complaints such as access to blankets and toiletries (735) and complaints about the conditions at the prison. 24 complaints about assaults were recorded.

Conditions:

• Overcrowding persists despite efforts to bring the numbers down by expediting prosecution of cases of the awaiting-trials through the assistance of the Integrated Justice Forum Magistrates, Senior Prosecutors, Social Welfare and HOP.
• Shortage of beds has been the complication facing the prisoners from the problem of overcrowding.

Programmes:

• Education programmes are in place but are rendered to the sentenced prisoners only.
• Woodwork and joinery, welding, bricklaying, building block making were vocational programmes offered.
• This office is currently facilitating the process of setting up a forum between the Head of Prison and the Senior State Prosecutors. The aim of this forum is to identify children and juveniles who were granted bail but are too poor to pay the bail amount. We hope that with the exchange of information between the two parties these children and juveniles can be dealt with. If not, we will strongly recommend to the Department of Correctional Services to consider a formal Section 63A application.

Statistical Information :

Approved accommodation: 918

Lock-up total : 1 981

Overcrowded by : 215%

Young offenders are accommodated in the same building as the adult prisoners. The building is not equipped specifically for incarceration of juveniles. Currently 91 juveniles and children are kept in this prison.

IPV : Mrs Selebano

Since the appointment of the IPV during November 2001 she has spent about 900 hours visiting the prison during which visits she conducted 12 807 interviews with prisoners and recorded 4 495 complaints.

Nature and number :

The majority of complaints were about conditions (951) followed by health care (858) and treatment (717).

• The overcrowding has been a problem although numbers fluctuate from time to time.
• Awaiting–trials have been affected by not having enough beds, but the situation was addressed by providing mattresses.
• Hot water supply particularly in winter has been a major difficulty.

• Virtually no education programmes are in place for the juveniles.
• Only adult prisoners are participating in these programmes.
• As an initiative on the side of Correctional Services Management a computer centre will be established.

Statistical Information :

Approved accommodation: 1 111

Lock-up total : 1 964

Overcrowded by : 176%

IPV : Ms Mdingi

Since the appointment of the IPV during 1 February 2002 she has spent about 260 hours visiting the prison during which visits she conducted 3 902 interviews with prisoners and recorded 3 038 complaints.

Nature and number :

The majority of complaints were about conditions (1 512) followed by health care (339) and treatment (542).

• The single biggest problem is without doubt overcrowded conditions meaning that prisoners lack access to basic amenities such as toilet facilities, showers, beds, etc.
• The infrastructure is battling to cope with the inflated numbers as stated above.
• The overcrowded conditions promote the development and spreading of contagious diseases and places high demands on the immune system of individuals resulting in many health related problems.
• Another problem with children and juvenile prisoners is that many of them (36 at Pollsmoor), have been sentenced by court to attend reformatory school, however they remain in prison for long periods because of the limited accommodation that these reformatory schools offer.

• A court has been established in the prison to expedite the cases against children. Children have been separated from juvenile prisoners.
• Vegetable gardens have been established with the purpose of providing children and juveniles with the opportunity to work outside the prison buildings and also to transfer some gardening skills to them. In addition to this various education and recreational programmes are conducted and maintained by Correctional Officials in line with National Curriculums.

3. CONCLUSION:

The implementation of legislative amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act such as plea-bargaining (S105) and the release of prisoners on account of poor prison conditions (S63A) should significantly contribute to the reduction of awaiting-trial prisoners. Should the number of awaiting trial prisoners be brought down to about 20 000 it will have a significant impact on the conditions in all our prisons and would enable the Department of Correctional Services to spend resources on much needed rehabilitation programmes.

The appointment of IPV’s in most of our prisons should afford children and juveniles with some protection in that the IPV’s visit prisons regularly and monitor that prisoners are treated in a fair and just manner. The IPV’s also provide the Inspectorate with valuable information about the number and nature of complaints received which information in turn enables the Inspectorate to identify trends that may exist in human rights abuses at particular prisons. This information will be included in our Annual Report and be dealt with by inspectors.

The Inspectorate is also involved in awareness programmes amongst youth and children in mostly schools and churches with the aim to inform children about the negative effects and dangers of imprisonment. It is envisaged that these awareness programmes will continue in all provinces with the assistance of IPV’s who are in most cases involved in community organizations.

Issued by : Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons