Child prison hell

South Africa's child prisoners are being detained in appalling conditions - locked up for 23 hours a day, denied an education and access to social workers and psychologists, and being viciously assaulted.

A damning report by the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative shows that the Correctional Services Department is in violation of the constitution and of UN conventions on children's rights.

A report on a study between 2011 and last year at 41 prisons across South Africa by Professor Lukas Muntingh and Clare Ballard, Children in Prison in South Africa, paints a dim picture of children in jail.

Some of the shocking findings of the report are that:

Juveniles are detained for 120 days awaiting trial;

Children of schoolgoing age awaiting trial, sentenced to two years or less, or who have special needs, are denied an education;

85% of prison officials have no training in working with children;

39% of child prisoners received no visits for three months;

No steps are taken by prison officials to ensure that children remain in contact with families;

Children have to buy phonecards to contact their families;

Unsentenced children do not have access to a psychologist; and

Children have, on average, access to 3.3m² of floor space, which is less than the international standard.

The report, which calls for urgent corrective action, states that very few children are given information about prison rules and regulations, or are told of their rights.

The report reveals that awaiting-trial children are known as "here today and gone tomorrow" prisoners, and slams the department's "gross violation" of children's rights to education and development.

Muntingh said that, though the legislation was adequate, there were huge inconsistencies in the way prisons were managed and policies implemented.

"Across the board, there is simply no proper compliance with the Correctional Services Act, the constitution or international conventions.

"The department is far more interested in renaming prisons than on focusing on meeting the minimum requirements when it comes to protecting children in their charge," he said.

"One of the biggest problems is that there is no 'service plan', which determines what services prisoners can access.

"Prisoners sentenced to two years or more have access to such plans, but when it comes to children, many are sentenced to shorter terms.

"This means children fall through the 'rehabilitation gap' and are exposed to gangsters and brutal crimes such as rape, which devastates a child. Instead of being rehabilitated, children are being broken," Muntingh said.

He said officials at operational levels needed to understand what they were legally obliged to do in respect of child prisoners.

"It is flabbergasting that 85% of prison officials are not trained to work with children.

"Children are in the department's charge and many of these children, who are troubled, need special care, yet officials do not know what to do for them."

A Pretoria warder, who asked not to be named, said: "Children should not be here. What is here is hell ... a deadly, violent hell, which is breaking these kids."

Anne Skelton, director of the Centre for Child Law, said people should be "extremely concerned" about what was happening to children in prison.

"There needs to be vast improvements to address huge problems facing children in prison.

"One of the biggest problems is the lack of knowledgeable officials to deal with children.

"International laws must be upheld ... children cannot be denied education ... they cannot be denied their basic rights, including those of safety and security."

Jacob van Garderen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights, said: "One of the most concerning issues is children awaiting trial ... far too many are in pre-trial detention when they should not be ... where they face great risks."

Acting national commissioner of Correctional Services, Ntsiki Jolingana, failed to respond to questions on the report at the time of going to press.