Cape Town - Reports of officials assaulting inmates in South Africa’s prisons have increased, says the Judicial Inspectorate of Prison’s latest report, which shows that the number of complaints it received in the last quarter of 2014 was more than triple the number recorded for the same period in 2013.
The inspectorate’s last quarterly report, submitted to the portfolio committee for correctional services last month, says the inspectorate received 75 complaints – compared with 24 received over the same period the previous year.
In addition, the report showed overcrowding was still a problem, with figures revealing some prisons were about 200 percent full. The figures were collected during 24 inspections of prisons and three investigations conducted between October and the end of December. The inspections were conducted in the Northern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
“The inspectorate focuses mostly on complaints where inmates’ core minimum rights were alleged to have been violated. In this regard conduct that allegedly violates the safety of inmates and their human dignity are brought under scrutiny,” the report says.
In addition to the complaints of assaults, inspectors recorded 20 unnatural deaths, 119 incidents in which officials had to use force, and 758 segregations due to violence.
Summaries of some of the incidents show many inmates claim they were denied an opportunity to press criminal charges, and some allege they did not receive medical treatment for their injuries.
In the Western Cape an inmate at Drakenstein reported he had been assaulted and verbally abused by an official. The investigation is pending.
Western Cape Correctional Services Commissioner Delekile Klaas said an investigation established that four officials assaulted the offender after he committed a “transgression”.
The officials were issued with written warnings.
In Knysna an inmate reported last November that three officials kicked him with booted feet before they put him in segregation for 12 days. He alleged he was assaulted after he become involved in a fight with an inmate over a radio.
However, Klaas said the offender threw boiling water at an official, prompting warders to use force to restrain him, before placing him in segregation.
In Pretoria an inmate alleged he was assaulted after he told an official he could not take his medication on an empty stomach. He claims the official told him he did not care about his illness and he should speak to the “baboons” who gave him Aids.
In Grahamstown an inmate at Umtata Prison, who ended up in a wheelchair after he was allegedly assaulted by officials in 2006, told inspectors he opened a case with police but was denied access to his medical information.
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he report said the Medium B prison in Umtata was 195 percent overcrowded. It was designed to accommodate 720 inmates but had 1 406 inmates on the day of the inspection. Grootvlei Medium A Prison can accommodate 890 inmates, but had 1 960 inmates, making it 220 percent overcrowded.
Weekend Argus