South Africa’s critical role in securing the adoption of major prison reform at the United Nations places the violations currently place in our own jails under the spotlight. Unnatural deaths, public searches of bodies stripped naked, torture, overcrowding, violence, and a rampant spread of tuberculosis all run counter to the new set of guidelines on fair treatment for prisoners adopted by the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on Friday, which they have named the Mandela Rules.The world forum also declared that Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18 will also be known as Mandela Prisoner Rights Day, to help raise awareness about prisoners.The United Nations process begun five years ago, including meetings held in Cape Town in March. The new rules are the key standard for the treatment of prisoners globally which the UN General Assembly says should "reflect recent advances in correctional science and best practices".The 122 rules include ensuring the independence of healthcare staff, prohibition of solitary confinement beyond 15 days and detailed instructions on how cell and body searches can be conducted.According to Clare Ballard, an attorney who heads up the penal reform programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, two thirds of our prison population have been sentenced and one third (40 000 prisoners) are awaiting trial.This later group faces extreme conditions of overcrowding and this says Ballard, makes for “far worse conditions”.“Sanitation issues, the spread of tuberculosis, stress, violence, attacks of inmates by inmates and guards by inmates, are all exacerbated by overcrowding,” she says.According to a report by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Centres, violence remained a feature of life in prisons: In the cycle ending in 2013, 19 inmates hanged themselves, nine were murdered by fellow inmates, six overdosed on drugs and three committed suicide by setting their cells alight.Ballard says that South African prisons are better off that prisons in various other African countries (such as Nigeria and Benin where awaiting trial prisoners make up two thirds), but much worse off than European prisons.She adds: “The document won’t have massive impact but it is a powerful advocacy tool for change especially regarding torture and ill-treatment”.For issues like solitary confinement and hunger strikes, for example, this document provided the only point of reference and was therefore important.Sihle Tshabalala, who spent 11 years behind bars in the Western Cape, says “there is no such thing as fair treatment in South African prisons”.He said Operation Vala was one such example: “Every year in correctional centres, just before the festive season, prisoners are stripped naked. They must go outside and stand in a line and be searched in public. But this is a human rights violation. People should rather be searched in private.”He said there was also a mechanism for lodging complaints, but that if one does this “you are seen as a trouble maker. And the complaint doesn’t go anywhere.”James Selfe, shadow minister of correctional services for the Democratic Alliance, welcomed the adoption of the Mandela Rules."They represent an advance of the existing minimum standards and they contain some very encouraging minimum standards,” he said last night."South Africa adheres quite well to these standards and most of the statutory requirements are in place. However it is always in the implementation where the problem lies. The Parliamentary Committee has only visited two prisons since the election of the fifth parliament."The Department of Correctional Services declined to comment.Over the consultative period of five years, meetings involving the UN’s active member states from all regions, assisted by representatives from UN entities, were held in Vienna, Buenos Aires and Cape Town.South Africa offered financial support and leadership throughout the review process and hosted the meeting of the Expert Group on the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners held in Cape Town from March 2 to March 5.Conditions in South African prisons are illustrated by:Civil lawsuit: 231 St Alban's prisoners in Eastern Cape sued the Department of Correctional Services. They claimed that they were tortured for five days following the death of a warder in 2005;Overcrowding: Nationally overcrowding is at 137% of intended capacity. The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders reported last year that the total capacity of prisons was 118154 people, with 25000 places reserved for awaiting-trial detainees. The total prison population is 162162 and 49695 (31%) prisoners are awaiting trial;Per capita prison population: The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Centres' 2013-1014 annual report said that the prison population in South Africa is one of the highest per capita in the world, and that the shortage of qualified employees is severe;Prisons not equipped to deal with fires: An inmate set fire to his cell and died. There was no fire hose in the section, officials were not trained to use an extinguisher, and half an hour passed before the inmate was attended to by a nurse, who transferred him to a public hospital;Use of force: In 2012-2013, 83 instances of the use of force by prison officers were reported. A year later the number was 191; andAs far back as 2005, when the Jali Commission was convened, it was found that corruption was rife in most of the nine provinces investigated, that prisoners were locked up early in their cells so that officials could go home early, and that the recommendations of social workers were often overlooked in decisions regarding parole.The Mandela Rules include:Prisoners should enjoy the same standards of healthcare as everyone else, free of charge;Prisons should offer education, vocational training and work . of a remedial, moral, spiritual, social, and health and sports nature;Where dormitories are used, they should be occupied by prisoners carefully selected as being suitable to associate with one another;Solitary confinement should be used only as a last resort, for as short a time as possible;The use of chains, irons or other instruments of restraint that are inherently degrading or painful should be prohibited; andAwaiting-trial prisoners should sleep in rooms separate to those of convicts.Additional reporting by Dave Chambers..