Aids a big problem in prisons

2005-01-30 21:51

Johannesburg - HIV/Aids and overcrowding in prisons are serious problems, members of parliament visiting prisons in North West have found.

The chair of parliament's portfolio committee on correctional services, Dennis Bloem, said: "HIV/Aids in these prisons concerns us very much, it is so rife.

Potchefstroom (prison) has reported two deaths from Aids in January alone."

Bloem said another very serious problem is the prevalence of youth and children in prisons. Rustenburg prison has 1 200 youths from as young as 15 serving sentences.

The committee has visited Losperfontein, Mogwashe, Rustenburg and Potchefstroom prisons and plans to visit Mpumalanga prisons this week.

Staff

The purpose of these visits is to meet department of correctional services workers 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 is also addressing the issue of discipline and "respect" among warders.

It will also consider "everything from gangsterism to corruption".

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

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

Societal problem

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

"This is not a thing which can happen overnight, it is a process," said Bloem who went on to explain that this is not a problem for government and the department of correctional services alone.

"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