The escape of nearly 1 000 prisoners this year highlights fault lines in the over- burdened criminal justice system. David Shapshak reports
THE parlous state of the South African Police Service was underlined yet again this week with the release of figures showing that more people escaped from police custody this year than from all the country’s prisons put together.
Statistics released by the government showed that nearly 1 000 violent criminals – including murderers, armed robbers and hijackers – escaped from police cells in the first eight months of this year.
Escape from police custody is not difficult, it seems – especially in Mmabatho, North- West province, where 18 prisoners bolted for freedom when their cell doors were left open in five separate incidents over the eight- month period.
In addition to escapees, more than 5 000 convicted criminals absconded while on parole. This represents nearly 19% of all convicts given parole.
Attention has been drawn to escapes from police custody and parole-breakers by the disclosure
In one case, convicted murderer David Ruiters was released on parole and then implicated last week as a member of a five- man prison gang accused of murdering two women and a child in Niewoudtville in the Western Cape. Another gang member is awaiting trial for murder.
The police are unable to give a detailed breakdown of the crimes for which 957 prisoners – who escaped while in police custody this year- had been charged. Only 284 have been re-arrested. Out of a total prison population of more than 120 000, 892 convicted prisoners escaped during the same period.
Prison overcrowding forces many prisoners awaiting trial to be kept in police cells, that are not designed to handle the quantity or calibre of the criminals. The prisons, constructed for a population of about 95 000, must accommodate 122 330 prisoners, a quarter of whom are still unsentenced or awaiting trial. The prison population has risen from 111 798 in 1993.
In more than one instance police officers have been overpowered when dealing with the vastly overcrowded communal holding cells. Police were also unable to determine how several escapes were effected. Figures for previous years have not been compiled.
In the biggest break-out, using one of the most common means of escape, 61 prisoners escaped through the roof of the Brakpan prison in the East Rand.
Apart from really serious criminals, few prisoners will complete their sentences inside prisons, correctional services representative Koos Gerber said.
In the first eight months of the year 29 387 prisoners were placed on parole and 5 479 absconded. Gerber was unable to provide exact details of the crimes these abscondees were accused of committing.
Correctional Services Portfolio Committee chairman Carl Niehaus said the causes behind the overburdening of prisons stem as much from problems in the Safety and Security and Justice departments as they do from the range of factors affecting correctional services.
While the present prisons are mostly outdated and overcrowded, with Pollsmoor Prison overpopulated by about 200%, five new prisons – to house 5 000 prisoners – are expected to be completed by November next year. Upgradings and renovations on existing structures are also under way. However, Niehaus said: “I don’t think we will ever build ourselves out of the problem.”
He believes the Correctional Services Department needs to reprioritise and find ways of achieving more within its budgetary constraints.
Also at the heart of the overburdened prison system, he said, are severe staff problems – from corruption and a manpower shortage of 6 000 people, to poor morale caused by uncertainty over affirmative action or anger that it is not being phased in fast enough.
Absenteeism among prison warders is also a problem. This was most notably seen when three Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging bombers escaped from Diepkloof prison, Soweto, in March when only five of the 17 warders reported for duty – a comprehensive report of which has still not been presented to Niehaus. But according to the National Institute of Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders,the lot of prisoners has not improved. Rapes are a regular occurrence in many jails.
Inhumane living conditions, chronic overcrowding and the resultant lack of quality of life make rehabilitation almost impossible, said senior social worker Zeenith Domingo-Kahn.
And prisons have become “recruiting agencies”, where minor criminals find their way into prison gangs, and are an “organising base” where further crimes are planned, said Wits University Professor Robin Lee, who compiled the Nedcor anti- crime report. Only 6% of prisoners do not return to jail, he added, with the other 94% making the South African recidivism rate – where perpetrators continuously return to jail – one of the world’s highest. Lee pointed to a more selective parole selection procedures and the need to build more prisons as two solutions.
Separation of hardened and minor criminals is necessary to ensure rehabilitation, he said.
Niehaus said the building of maximum security prisons for hardened criminals is on the cards, as is a proper complaints mechanism to deal with corruption allegations against warders, such as the involvement of the public protector.
In addition, he said, an inspecting judge is to be appointed as an independent investigative authority.