Cape Town - The government is hoping to radically improve the country’s prison system through new technology and improved legislation.
This week a change to Section 49G of the Correctional Services Act, Act 111 of 1998 came into effect, requiring that a remand detainee, or a person awaiting trial, may not be held for a period exceeding two years unless the court hearing the matter had deliberated and found differently.
The Parliamentary Portfolio committee on prisons was also debating installing CCTV cameras in prison cells, to monitor prisoner behaviour and allow prison officials to prevent attacks and rapes on prisoners and other crimes.
At the same time, Minister of Correctional Services Sibusiso Ndebele is in Los Angeles, US, to study hi technology systems that identify and monitor the movements of, prisoners in real time, a spokesman of his office said on Wednesday.
But DA shadow minister of correctional services, James Selfe said the amendment to the law might well end up being useless, as the Department of Correctional Services current prisoner identification system was not working at all and the department had no idea who was being detained and for how long.
Selfe said the DA supported all the measures proposed but believed that before the existing “mess”in the prison services management as not put right, no other intervention would work.
“Minister Ndebele should come home for a change and come sort out the mess first,” he said. “He is forever travelling overseas.”
The real-time location and tracking technology used in Los Angeles was specifically tailored for the stringent requirements of correctional facilities, the department said in a statement yesterday.
“It provides a revolutionary capability for correctional facilities to improve security, and safety, by providing real-time identification, and tracking, of inmates, and officials, at two-second intervals.
“At the case management centre, the minister saw first-hand how case workers monitor parolees and probationers daily.”
Ndebele said he foresaw a secure, safe and humane system.
Selfe said some modern technology was already in place at the Durban Westville prison but part had been knocked out by a lightning strike and the remainder did not work because there were no skilled staff to operate it. Cameras in cells were a good idea but it had to be backed up by proper monitoring, he said.
Cape Argus