The government will build four prisons housing 3 000 prisoners each in the next three years in a bid to relieve overcrowding, Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana said on Thursday.
Addressing reporters in Johannesburg, Skosana said his department was considering releasing 15 000 awaiting-trial prisoners who were granted bail of R1 000 or less and who could not pay, to ease the congestion in cells. These prisoners would, however, still be tried.
”That will also help deal with the problem of overcrowding,” the minister said. ”That is not enough; but we must also remember that the police arrest a lot of people in a short period of time.”
The issue of overcrowding would be with correctional services departments in the region for a long time, Skosana said.
He said 1 424 foreigners were in prison in South Africa but most of them came from southern Africa. A total of 620 hail from Lesotho, 415 come from Mozambique and 206 come from Zimbabwe.
”But there are also South Africans (serving long sentences) outside the country,” Skosana said. ”Sometimes the conditions are not good. In other countries, prison services are not a priority.”
Skosana said he hoped that the transfer of prisoners from one country to another would help ease the problem of overcrowding in prisons.
Skosana spoke to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting of correctional services ministers held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
The two-day meeting of Southern African Development Community ministers ended on Thursday. Overcrowding and the transfer of prisoners from one country to another were two of the issues that were identified as challenges facing correctional services ministers in the region.
Zambian Home Affairs Minister Ronnie Shikapwashya said most foreigners who were detained had a pending deportation order against them or had violated immigration laws.
”There is a huge problem of overcrowding, as a result, there is a difficulty to control the spread of diseases,” he said. – Sapa