By Hazel Friedman
There's no mistaking Midlandia for anything other than a military-style detention barracks, 10 former inmates have said.
It is situated far from the main "dorp" comprising the Noupoort Christian Care Centre. Ringed by a barbed-wire fence, the sombre, L-shaped building looks impenetrable.
That's the idea, say the inmates, who asked not to be named.
Midlandia was earmarked as a "project station" for woodwork and other vocational activities. But, say the inmates, this plan fell away.
Pastor Sophos justified Midlandia's boot-camp style as the only way to "bring order into offenders' lives".
He believes in the power of Jesus Christ to heal and provides no medication or counselling.
He denies that corporal punishment - outlawed by the constitution - is used. But Johan Visser, who runs the Pinelands Drug Education Council, vehemently disagrees.
His son Jody spent four months at Noupoort and several weeks at Midlandia. On his release his father found welts on his back.
His son had a burst eardrum - the result, says Visser, of assaults by staff.
Visser describes the treatment at Midlandia as barbaric.
"We send our children there because they are ill and need to get well. We expect them to be built up, not broken down in body, spirit and soul. Even convicted murderers have more human rights than inmates at Midlandia."
Drug addicts who have disobeyed the rules are interned far from the others at Noupoort.
Detention can exceed eight weeks.
During their imprisonment, inmates are forced to do painful physical labour designed to eliminate their "deviant" ways.
They are shackled and handcuffed. If they don't toe the line, they are locked up alone in cages and handcuffed to the gate.
Sleep and food deprivation form part of the punishment.
Inmates are often woken up by water being poured over their heads and being punched and kicked to attention.
A day at Midlandia begins at 4am. Thirty minutes of prayers are followed by four hours of PT - carrying bags of cement up a hill, digging pits or crawling on gravel.
Failure to perform results in repeated dunking in a water trough until they get it right or pass out.