Amnesty to clear prisons?

2003-05-23 23:42

Anesca Smith

Cape Town - Thousands of prisoners could be released on April 27 next year, when the tenth anniversary of South Africa's first democratic election will be celebrated.

A general amnesty for thousands is one of the suggestions in the latest annual report of the judge inspectorate of prisons in an attempt to alleviate the critical over-crowding in prisons.

South Africa's prisons are 70% over-populated at present.

The previous "amnesty for a specific occasion" was in July 1998 when former president Nelson Mandela turned 80. A total of 9 000 prisoners were released, which led to a public outcry.

The judge inspector, Mr Justice Hannes Fagan, warned, though, that amnesty brought only temporary relief to prisons.

"Long-term solutions will be to build more prisons or to lower the number of prisoners to an acceptable level of about 120 000 instead of the existing 188 307.

"We cannot afford to build more prisons, because it's already costing the state about R18m a day to accommodate them," Fagan said.

"Apart from Rwanda, South Africa has the highest number of

Fagain also said "a long prison sentence was apparently not a good enough deterrent anymore to make criminals think again before committing a crime".

"Research has shown that people will rather be deterred from committing a crime if they know for certain that they definitely will be caught and punished rather than that severe punishment will be meted out.

Long prison sentences are unnecessary to rehabilitate prisoners. It would have been a good idea in 1997 perhaps to tell the South African public which crimes are out of control.

"It's not required anymore, though, because crime in South Africa is not higher than in many other countries. It is under control in on the decrease.

"The result of long prison sentences is a sharp increase in the number of prisoners who have been sentenced. Somewhere there should be a solution for those who have been sentenced to long and life-long imprisonment. They will stay behind bars for many years to come," Fagan said.

Fagan suggests long prison sentences should be given only when there is no hope for rehabilitation.

He also warned that bail amounts should be considered carefully.

"On 24 March this year a total of 19 592 accused could not afford bail. The amounts varied from less than R50. Because of poverty, the suspects are detained for 143 days on average before a court appearance.

- Die Burger