Pretoria - Oscar Pistorius special needs will be satisfied, and he'll be isolated from gangsterism, violence and human rights violations if he is sent to prison.
This was according to State witness Moleko Zac Modise, the acting National Director for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) during the athlete's sentencing proceedings on Thursday morning.
Pistorius's defence team's experts previously testified about inhumane conditions in local jails, but Modise insisted Pistorius would be safe if incarcerated.
He was the second of at least four witnesses expected to be called by the State to convince Judge Masipa Thokozile to be harsh on the athlete in her sentencing after he was convicted of culpable homicide in September for the death of Reeva Steenkamp.
On Wednesday, Modise gave a report to Parliament which directly mentioned Pistorius's murder trial, specifically on conditions in local prisons.
He told the court that he could assure the public that prisons can cater for people with disabilities, including Pistorius who is a double-amputee.
Earlier this week, Pistorius's defence team brought a social worker, Annette Vergeer, to testify on how poor conditions were in South Africa's prisons, which she claimed were rampant with violence, drugs and rape.
She also believed that the prisons did not have the correct facilities to humanely house Pistorius, and recommended he be kept under correctional supervision, rather than serve a jail sentence.
In a clear bid to dispel these perception, prosecutor Gerrie Nel led Modise in providing a lengthy summary of his 35-year long career, where he said he had worked in a number of jails, and served numerous years as a prison inspector.
He said he was part of the team that ensured prisons complied with legislation and “the human rights of offenders”.
It's understood that the DCS sent Modise because they had issues with Vergeer's testimony, especially surrounding prison overcrowding and the dangers for a disabled person behind bars.
Modise told the court that single cell options for such inmates, and there are facilities to support each and every type of offender.
Nel asked if an inmate could bring in their own private medical practitioner if needed instead of the prison doctors, and Modise confirmed this was possible.
Modise also told the court that officials from the department must establish any complaints from prisoners on a daily basis to correct them if need be.
These complaints can be delivered at any time, and if nothing is done, the complaints can be escalated all the way up to the national office at the department.
He said that upon being sent to prison, a health assessment is conducted within the first six hours to determine their needs.
The prisons provide numerous support programmes for the physical, emotional and even spiritual needs for offenders, and rehabilitation programmes that can fit each prisoner.
The department sent a chief director and psychologist to inspect the local facility where Pistorius could be detained to determine its conditions.
Modise said the report had determined there was a gym on the premises, hospital facilities and psychological counselors available or an inmate could bring in their own psychologist.
He admitted that gangs were a reality in prison, but that the department had created their own strategy in dealing with them, teaching inmates how to inform the authorities of gang activity. He said the department was dealing with gangsterism, with the help of the South African Police Services.
Modise said however, that offenders kept in single cells, including those in the hospital section, would ensure that vulnerable inmates could be protected from such activity.
Nel asked about how the department's new administration dealt with inheriting the older prison facilities. Modise said that these were set for upgrades, and that his department wanted to move away from simply “warehousing” people, to ensure they followed human rights legislation.
Nel brought up Vergeer's assertions that facilities don't even have shower rails or baths for disabled prisoners, but Modise said this was wholly untrue.
The single cells were equipped with private sinks and toilets, according to Modise, despite the real problem of overcrowding in prison. However, this problem had significantly decreased in the past few years, dropping from 185 000 to 157 000 prisoners currently behind bars.
Modise also said that general problems in prisons were common across the world, such as the threat of gangsterism, overcrowding and unauthorised items smuggled into facilities.
In his cross-examination, defence advocate Barry Roux, said he believed that Modise was genuinely concerned about improving local prison conditions.
He asked about what the response was to Modise's parliamentary performance report, and Modise implied it went well.
Roux read from a report in The Star newspaper that suggested DCS had come under fire for an increase in prison torture attacks.
Modise claimed that some NGOs like the Wits Justice Project had published such reports on this without verifying them, but did not outright deny such incidents.
Roux then brought up several court rulings against the department that showed that incidents of assault and torture had increased significantly in recent years.
Modise said it was important that such issues needed to be addressed, but the department has had to intervene at certain institutions in recent years to combat such problems.
Roux asked about alleged threats from prisoners against Pistorius, but Modise said he had not heard of such allegations.
Roux claimed the head of the infamous prison gang, the 26es, had made such threats in a Citizen report.
Using a prison callbox, the head said that Pistorius would be “taken out” and life made hell for him in prison.
The lawyer then said he believed that correctional supervision (or house arrest) procedures had vastly improved in recent years. However, Modise evaded answering directly, saying it was improving but it was not at the point where the department wanted it to be.
Roux asked about the state of the prison bathrooms, and it was established that baths were only available in the hospital section of the prisons. Modise confirmed that for the specific needs of the athlete, only the hospital section could cater for him.
Next, Roux asked about cases where prisoners complained they weren't receiving medical treatment, and Modise responded by saying the prison had legal unit to deal with these cases, and there weren't a great number of them.
The national director was asked how many single cells existed per prison, but he could not answer, nor could he say how many prisoners were housed in the hospital section. Modise was asked to provide these statistics on the hospital section.
The Star