No space in SA prisons

OVERCROWDING BY 46%: INMATES OCCUPY LESS THAN HALF A SQUARE METRE

- Jarryd Westerdale

The overcrowding in prisons has reached calamitous proportions. In a recent breakdown of prison capacity and operational restraints to the parliamentary portfolio committee, the correctional services department's figures indicate inmates are confined in barely enough space to move and improving conditions is several years away.

Recent numbers show the department has just over 156 700 inmates occupying an available space of 107 346 beds - or 358 535.64sqm². This represents overcrowding is at 46% in South Africa's prisons and results in inmates having to occupy less than half a square metre.

"We have a formula in terms of the square metres in cells, so 3.34sqm² equals one bed space. It's not the total of beds you can fit into a cell," said departmental deputy commissioner Dr Riaan Botha.

Between September 2023 and July 2024, bed capacity increased by 2 788 units. But 50 000 additional beds, or 167 000 sqm², were still needed.