Many more inmates but far fewer escapes, says prisons commissioner

The department of correctional services says there have been fewer escapes from South African prisons in the year between April 2022 and March 2023 than there were in the period April 2020 to March 2021.

There were 27 prison escapes in the year ending March 2023, down from 117 in the previous period.

Correctional services’ chief deputy commissioner Joseph Katenga said 24 of the 27 escapees were rearrested, mostly within five days of their escape. Three are still at large.

The department said it has reduced security incidents over the past three years by ensuring effective implementation of prevention strategies, conducting security awareness sessions and security operational visits.

Compliance with policies and standard operating procedures also played a vital role in preventing multiple escapes, injuries as a result of reported assaults and confirmed unnatural deaths, said Katenga.

He was addressing parliament’s justice and correctional services portfolio committee about the department’s annual report for the year ending March 2023.

As at March 31,  the department had 157,056 inmates, of whom 101,186 were sentenced and 55,870 were unsentenced.

Gauteng had 24% of all the inmates, followed by the Western Cape at 18% and KwaZulu-Natal (16%).

The inmate population increased by 16,108 from 140,948 in 2020/21 to 157,056, constituting an overall increase of 11.43% over three years.

The majority of the 11.43% increase was experienced in the 2022/23 period, 13,833 from 143,223 to 157,056.

The overcrowding levels escalated from 32% as at March 31 2022 to 46% as at the end-March this year.

The department said its population of 157,056 was accommodated within the approved bed space capacity of 107,582, resulting in an excess of 49,474 inmates.

Through the effective implementation of the assault prevention strategy, the department said it had reduced the number of injuries as a result of reported assaults from 5,699 in the 2020/21 financial year to 3,754 in the 2022/23 financial year.

Regular security awareness sessions in the department had ensured compliance with relevant security prescripts.

“These interventions have contributed to a reduction of unnatural deaths during the financial year under review [2022/23] with 42 confirmed deaths while 47 were reported in 2020/21.

According to the inspecting judge for the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, justice Edwin Cameron, overcrowding in the country’s prisons is a condition resulting from political executive choices. He said a reassessment by parliament of the policy on the matter was “absolutely essential”.

Cameron said it was also important to fix crime intelligence in the country as a way of reducing crime.

“There are extensive analyses by credible outside agencies that say that crime intelligence itself is riddled with crime right up to the very top,” he said. “It is not going to help us to bemoan and bewail overcrowding when we can stop crime, we can reduce violent crime, we can reduce cash-in-transit heists and we can reduce zama zamas provided we are willing to go to the top, and for that crime intelligence is necessary.”

Cameron said the inspectorate was worried about overcrowding and under-capacitation in prisons. But they were in talks with correctional services minister Ronald Lamola and the National Treasury about it.

They were also in touch with the health minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, the medical ombud and national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale about state patients in prisons.

The presence of state patients in correctional facilities posed potential risks to the safety of officials and other inmates, added the inspectorate’s Ntombizodwa Sibutha.

She said there were 125 declared state patients in prisons across South Africa. State patients are alleged mentally ill offenders whose charges generally involved serious violence such as murder, rape and assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Sibutha said they were concerned about overcrowding in Gauteng, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape prisons.

They were also concerned that the population of remand detainees had reached its highest point in more than a decade. There was also a rise in inmates serving life sentences, she said.

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