A clinical psychologist has described Pretoria’s high-security C-Max prison as ”inhumane, depressing, debilitating and destructive”.
Dr Jurgens van Olselen on Monday testified in the Pretoria High Court trial of convicted murderer Casper (Cassie) Kruger, who is claiming R500 000 in damages from the Department of Correctional Services. He claims he suffered emotional trauma when sent unlawfully to C-Max.
Kruger was on death row for several years after he was sentenced to death in the early 1990s for murdering three gay people in Johannesburg. His sentence was converted to 22 years, which he is now serving at Leeuwkop prison in Midrand.
Kruger claims the 40 months he spent in C-Max have changed his life. He said he can no longer sleep, has nightmares and cannot tolerate noise or people around him.
Van Olselen said he consulted with Kruger for about 80 hours following his removal from C-Max. He visited C-Max to examine the circumstance there, an experience he said he will never forget.
”It was one of the most traumatic experiences in my life. I have never seen humans being treated like that. I find it inhumane … and I still get nightmares … the place still haunts me,” the witness said.
Van Olselen said he does not believe any rehabilitation can occur in C-Max.
”You must see those cages to believe it. These people are locked up for 23 hours a day and then they are not even allowed to speak to anyone,” Van Olselen said.
He said Kruger will need at least need five years of intensive therapy and medication. Kruger’s incarceration in C-Max caused him to be aggressive and to lose his dignity.
Van Olselen said C-Max reminded him of the film Dead Man Walking, with ”people staring back at you with a glassy expression in their eyes”.
He said being incarcerated under such circumstances, with loud music blaring all day long, can induce psychosis.
”My lord, there you sit. You don’t even see a ray of sunlight or a blade of grass. It is just cement all around you.”
Kruger claims he did not commit the crimes.
Van Olselen said while at C-Max Kruger had to face his visitors in chains, a humiliating experience. Kruger was so stressed that he bit his fingernails until they bled.
Escaped twice
The court earlier heard that Kruger twice escaped from jail — in 1996 and in 1997 — and was presumably involved in an attempted escape once while on his way to court. A firearm and ammunition was found in the wheel of the vehicle in which he was due to be transported.
During one of the escapes, he and a fellow inmate held a prison official hostage in the prison hospital and hijacked a getaway car.
Kruger said he was punished for this by a month in solitary confinement in Pretoria Central Maximum division, where he was held at the time.
He was demoted to a D-grade prisoner, but worked his way up to A-grade again. Two weeks later, he said, he was suddenly transferred to C-Max prison. No one listened to his claims that he should not be there, Kruger said.
The Department of Correctional Services said Kruger posed a security risk and it could not allow its officials to be exposed to inmates who might harm them in an attempt to escape.
Kruger was eventually placed at Leeuwkop prison after the Court of Appeal ruled that his incarceration at C-Max was unlawful.
The trial continues. — Sapa