11 000 awaiting-trial prisoners charged with petty crimes and who cannot afford bail will be released from South Africa’s overcrowded prisons, the Correctional Services Department has announced. An official said the move was aimed at alleviating the cramped conditions in the country’s 236 prisons which hold 172 000 convicted felons, and 65 000 people awaiting prosecution. The prisoners who will be released will be those who cannot afford to pay bail of R1 000 or less, effectively scrapping bail for these prisoners. The official emphasised that they would still be prosecuted.