South African prisons continue to rise in overcrowding and little capacity. PHOTO: Twitter/@SAgovnews
SA prisons are overcrowded – but by how much?
The number of the prison population continues to increase while capacity for such perpetrators is insufficient.
South African prisons continue to rise in overcrowding and little capacity. PHOTO: Twitter/@SAgovnews
The country’s prisons continue to be overcrowded. By June this year, prisons were overflowing by 33.21%, an increase of 5% prison population recorded in February.
This was revealed by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola to questions posed by the Democratic Alliance.
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PRISONERS EXCEEED CAPACITY
Lamola’s answers to DA MP Jano Engelbrecht revealed that the bed space in prisons is at 108 804. However, the population of inmates is at 144 938 as of June. This is a significant increase from 141 221 in February. Back then, overcrowding was at 27.41%.
While all prisons in the country are overcrowded, Eastern Cape province had the highest level of overcrowding, with 63.03% of overflowing inmates. The province has 20 265 inmates.
The second highest province is the Western Cape with 26 633 prisoners, overcrowded by 49.51%. Gauteng came third at 45.6% overcrowding and a higher 34 405 prisoners.
But the the highest prisoner population are Komani, Mount Frere and Bizana prisons in the Eastern Cape. This included Allandale in Paarl, Western Cape and Lusikisiki prison in KwaZulu Natal. All the prisons overflowed by 199.21 to 248.24%, said Lamola.
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PRISON HAS A RATIO OF ONE OFFICIAL TO FOUR INMATES
The ration of prison officials to inmates was at 1 staff for every four prisoners. This however does not include administrative staff.
“The department has a total of 30 630 filled security personnel posts with 1 762 vacancies. The total number of posts is 32 392 with an inmate population of 144 663. Since March 2019, 99 146 prisoners have been released,” Lamola said.
PAROLE INMATES VIOLATE CONDITIONS
A large 16 112 of those out on parole have breached and violated their parole conditions.
“This includes the actual numbers of all revocations such as reoffending, loss of support system, revocation of absconders, and violation of conditions.”
Since March 2019, 6 417 parolees had committed serious offences since their release.
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