Packed to the brim: SA jails burst with inmates and corruption claims

PARLIAMENT’S Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services has raised concerns over the growing number of contraband items found in the country’s prisons, alongside severe overcrowding and concerns over inflated bread prices in correctional facilities.

- HOPE NTANZI [e-mail]

Speaking during the Social Services and Peace and Security Clusters media briefing on Monday, committee chairperson Kgomotso Ramolobeng said the findings followed the committee's recent oversight visits to prisons in the Eastern and Western Cape.

Ramolobeng said that at St Albans Correctional Centre alone, 786 cellphones were confiscated between April and September, while seven officials were caught with contraband.

“We have urged the department to ensure that criminal cases are opened against officials found compromising security in correctional facilities,” she said.

She said the committee had also encouraged the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to invest in technology to detect and prevent contraband, with St Albans expected to pilot a new system.

Ramolobeng described overcrowding as one of the biggest challenges facing the department, saying it “negatively impacts on the department's mandate to provide secure and humane detention and rehabilitation of offenders”

As of 31 March, DCS facilities had an approved bed space of 107 067 but were housing about 166 000 inmates, including more than 61 000 remand detainees and 107 000 sentenced offenders.