South Africa
Seen in the press
Read our selection of press reports about this country.
South Africa: plans under way to remove babies of offenders from East London prison after Covid-19 outbreak
The correctional services department is making plans for babies of two offenders at an East London female prison to be taken to their mothers’ families after cases of Covid-19 at the correctional facility. There are 26 confirmed coronavirus cases at the East London Correctional Centre. Three are in…
South Africa: community service for offenders with short sentences to alleviate prison overcrowding
Cape Town – Offenders who have been handed sentences of less than two years will serve their time doing community service. This decision has been made by Acting High Court Judge AJ Thulare in a bid to curb overcrowding in prisons. The move has been welcomed by Department of Correctional Services re…South Africa: why we should care about inhumane prison conditions?
On the anniversary this week of Sonke Gender Justice and Lawyers for Human Rights’ Pollsmoor overcrowding court victory, we should remember why the state of our prisons matter – and consider what we should be doing to improve conditions.South Africa: justice at last for reformed prisoner whose dream new life was destroyed in a heartbeat
Thanks to an electronic monitoring device that went missing, Dineo Kgatle spent 26 months behind bars for doing nothing wrong. In a ruling that could see a precedent-setting damages claim, his arrest and incarceration have been declared unlawful.South Africa : Is Ebongweni C-Max prison living up to its promises?
Prison violence, the disruptive behaviour of some inmates, high numbers of escapes in the 1990s and a public demand to be tough on crime led the South African government to replicate the American approach of dealing with very violent and dangerous offenders: building two super-maximum security pris…