Release prisoners, MPs urge

2005-02-03 07:53

Johannesburg - Some prisoners jailed for petty crimes should be released to ease overcrowding, said members of parliament visiting prisons in North West and Mpumalanga.

The chairperson of parliament's portfolio committee on correctional services, Dennis Bloem, said on Thursday: "The minister of correctional services (Ngconde Balfour) should look at releasing prisoners who have already appeared before a parole board and have committed petty crimes."

Prisoners who had committed violent crimes such as murder, rape and hijacking, should not be included, Bloem said.

The committee found that all eight of the prisons they had visited were seriously overcrowded.

Potchefstroom prison was 222% full, Rustenburg 159%, Losperfontein 142% and Mogwase was built to hold 600 prisoners, but had 1 000 inmates.

Witbank was 125% full and Barberton prison was 191% full, Bloem said.

"This overcrowding has serious implications for members of the correctional services and also for the infrastructure of prisons," he said.

"The infrastructure can't take the pressure. There are burst sewerage pipes and blocked toilets, for example."

Awaiting-trial prisoners were adding to the capacity problems.

Bloem was also concerned about the number of youths in jail. "In Rustenburg prison, for example, there were 1 200 youths with some as young as 15-years-old."

Women with babies were another concern.

"In Nelspruit prison, there is a girl of five-years-old, who was born in the prison. She doesn't know the outside world."

Want to see the 'realities'

The purpose of these visits is to meet department of correctional services to find out the conditions under which they are working and to look at the situation of overcrowding and its impact on staff.

"We want to see the realities of the situation on ground level for ourselves," said Bloem.

The committee would consider "everything from gangsterism to corruption".

The committee aimed to visit 241 prisons around the country, starting with the 10 in these two provinces.

On Thursday it would visit Ermelo prison and on Friday they planned to inspect Bethal prison.

It would compile a report with recommendations and this will be tabled in parliament, said Bloem.

The tabling of this report can be expected as early as March.

"This is a societal problem. South African prison facilities currently house 180 000 inmates and they were built to house 114 000 inmates," he said.

He said that this is not an easy problem to solve and they would like the media and society to assist in coming up with solutions.

- SAPA