Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola.
- The Department of Justice and Correctional Service has, in the last five years, added 2 650 extra beds at prisons.
- In the next five years, it plans to add another 3 006 extra bed spaces.
- The Eastern Cape and Gauteng have recorded the highest prison overpopulation figures.
Government has in the past five years added 2 650 extra bed space at correctional service facilities across the country, but the latest figures show close to 30 000 inmates are still without a bed.
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Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola revealed his department has planned to add 3 006 extra bed space in the next five years, “through construction and upgrading of facilities”.
Lamola replied to a written parliamentary question from DA MP James Selfe who had requested details on the latest prison population figures.
“In 2016, the case of Sonke Gender Justice judgment found that the government and the department had failed to provide the inmates of Pollsmoor Remand Detention Facility (RDF) with exercise, nutrition, accommodation, ablution facilities and health care services of a standard that complies with the requirements of the Correctional Services Act (Act 111, 1998) and that the failure is inconsistent with the Constitution.
“It is this high court judgment that made the executive of the department to utilise the 150% threshold as the maximum overcrowding status,” Lamola’s reply read.
Lamola said only 4 138 of the 19 000 inmates eligible for special early parole due to the Covid-19 pandemic had been released by 24 June.
This eased the overpopulation in South Africa’s prisons from 30.68% to 24.75%.
News24 reported last week that just under 7 000 of the planned 19 000 prisoners had been released on special parole dispensation.
The announcement was made by Lamola in a speech to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Meeting of the Group of Friends on the Nelson Mandela Rules last week.
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“Prior to the releases, the total population was 154 943 (101 928 sentenced and 53 015 remand detainees and other unsentenced inmates) which translated into a total population of 30.68% overpopulation which made social distancing difficult.
“After the releases, as at 24 June 2020, the inmate population was 147 922 consisting of (95 159 sentenced offenders and 52 763 remand detainees and other unsentenced inmates) which brought the overcrowding level to 24.75%,” Lamola said.
The current total approved bed space for correctional facilities across the country is 118 572.
The Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape are the worst affected provinces.
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In the Eastern Cape, correctional facilities can accommodate 13 294 inmates, but there are 19 422, of which 6 186 are remand detainees (awaiting-trial) and 13 236 sentenced offenders.
Prisons here are 46% overcrowded.
Prisons in Gauteng are 46.31% overcrowded and with a total bed space of 24 877, its currently accommodating 36 397 inmates (both awaiting trial and sentenced offenders).
The Western Cape’s prisons are 20.94% overcrowded. The province’s correctional facilities have bed space for 20 779 inmates, but there’s currently 11 871 remand detainees and 13 095 sentenced offenders housed.
Of the three biggest provinces, KwaZulu-Natal has the lowest overcrowding figure at 18.19%.
The province’s correctional service centres can accommodate 20 281 inmates, yet they currently house 23 970 – of which 7 417 are awaiting trial and 16 553 are sentenced offenders.
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