A total of 131 prisoners released on a special remission of sentence 10 weeks ago have been rearrested, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said on Thursday.
”I can report today that 131 offenders have been arrested again,” Balfour told guests at an emotionally charged prayer service in Soweto.
”These are people who again fell foul of the law … but we are going to interview them to see where it went wrong. We need to give them that second chance.”
A total of 30 704 offenders have been released into the care of their families since the remission started in June this year. A further 33 972 probationers and parolees have been released, the minister said.
Balfour, his deputy, Cheryl Gillwald, correctional services commissioner Linda Mti and member churches of the South African Council of Churches attended the service at the Regina Mundi church.
Before the remission, there were 185 000 prisoners in the country’s jails, and of these about 55 000 were awaiting-trial detainees.
There are now about 155 000 prisoners — 100 000 serving sentences and about 55 000 waiting to appear in court — in the country’s jails, Mti told reporters after the service.
”Our prisons are being overcrowded by awaiting-trial detainees,” he said, adding that South Africa’s prisons were built to accommodate about 113 000 prisoners.
A detailed report on the remissions, which end on August 9, will be handed over to the Cabinet at the end of September, Balfour said. — Sapa