Port Elizabeth – St Albans Maximum Correctional Centre in the Eastern Cape known to be one of the country's most shameful prisons is dangerously overcrowded and understaffed perpetuating the problem of gangsterism within prison walls.
On Friday, the laxity on part of St Albans Prison management to implement security operational procedures was brought under the microscope in a report by the Department of Correctional Services.
On December 26 last year, mayhem broke out when 33 prisoners, some armed with sharp objects and self made knives, started attacking guards in the dining hall at the end of the morning meal shift.
The inmates involved in the wholesale attack were from cells 22 and 23 in the Maximum B ward, at the time these cells were reserved for the most problematic of offenders. The violent stabbing spree resulted in 3 inmates losing their lives and the injury of 13 officials.
Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Thabang Makwetla, Eastern Cape Correctional Services Regional Commissioner, Nkosinathi Breakfast and National Commissioner Zach Modise were in Port Elizabeth on Friday to engage stakeholders in attempt to address tensions and ongoing burning issues of gangsterism within prison walls at St Albans.
Speaking to the media Makwetla said that of lessons learnt following the brawl was the apparent laxity of prison officials to search inmates when moving them around for meals.
Makwetla, highlighted some recommendations in the internal report, that high risk offenders should not be kept in two separate dedicated cells, as was the case when the fight broke out.
"Management thought that they were controlling a situation that was getting out of hand, but the way they went about it they actually exacerbated it . It's a lesson that it is not an advisable way to go about dealing with a challenge like that by creating dedicated cells and putting problematic offenders aside there," said Makwetla.
"They were a group that had some of their privileges withdrawn and that created a lot of frustration and resentment on their part. It was a spiralling of tension and the intervention was not assisting to break down those tensions."
Additional recommendations were that officials needed to be moved around from station to station and not kept in one section as was the case when the stabbing spree occurred.
"The issue of staff shortages are raised in the report as a very critical one. the department as a whole is facing extremely acute and dangerously so, shortages of personnel for purposes of safe custody. The recommendation says that St Albans must be isolated for special attention, we have got to improve the problem we have here of staff shortages."
For St Albans to be fully staffed the facility needs 221 officials, however the facility operates with just over fifty percent of that employing 129 officials.
Overcrowding
Following a court order by the Cape Town High Court, Makwetla said that the department was put on terms as to ensure that no centre was more than 150 percent overcrowded and that inmates at more challenged centres needed to be spread out. He said that the the department was working towards this however there were limitations.
"There are limitations to the extent we can deal with overcrowding. If we have more offenders sent to us by the courts, we can only deal with the overcrowding in relation to the capacity facility wise that we have. For as long as there are more citizens courts are sending for incarceration it means the problem of overcrowding will increase," he said.
According to prison insiders, at least 30 convicts who were involved in the violent brawl at St Albans were moved to North End medium correctional facility also known as 'Rooi Hel'. The Department however would only say that two of the convicts had been moved over to 'Rooi Hel.
In the Eastern Cape there are only two maximum security facilities, St Albans in Port Elizabeth and East London Correctional Centre.
Maximum security facilities tend to house more serious offenders and specialise in heightened security.