The correctional services department‚ outraged by inmates’ Facebook selfies sent from Pollsmoor in Cape Town‚ is clamping down heavily on cellphone use in prisons across the country.
The correctional services department‚ outraged by inmates’ Facebook selfies sent from Pollsmoor in Cape Town‚ is clamping down heavily on cellphone use in prisons across the country.
A statement issued by the department on Friday states it “will deal with the instigators – be they inmates or officials” in the Medium B centre of the prison that posted the photographs on the social network. Officials and three inmates were questioned and an investigation has been opened involving various law enforcement agencies. A disciplinary process will follow the probe that is expected to last a week‚ the department said.
In addition to impromptu searches for the offending instruments‚ correctional services is installing cellphone detection technology at Pollsmoor. This will extended to other prisons‚ including Umzinto‚ Durban-Westville‚ St Albans‚ Johannesburg and Kgosi Mapuru II. Such technology has already been introduced in Malmesbury and Brandvlei prisons in the Western Cape‚ Tswelopele and Mangaung in the Free State and Northern Cape region‚ and Kutama Sinthumule in Louis Trichardt‚ Limpopo.
The department said it had confiscated thousands of cellphones‚ and would continue to do so‚ “as they are used to perpetrate further criminal activities”.
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