The Department of Justice on Friday denied reports that thousands of awaiting-trial detainees are to receive ”get out of jail free” cards.
There were also ”certainly no plans” to release thousands of these inmates before Christmas, justice and constitutional development spokesperson Zolile Nqayi said.
The Office for Criminal Justice System Reform (OCJSR) had found that about 10 000 awaiting-trial detainees had been granted bail, but could not afford to pay, mostly because of poverty, he said.
It also found under-utilisation of legislation providing for the reassessment of these remand detainees’ bail conditions and their release on warning in lieu of bail.
Nqayi was responding to what he called ”continuing, highly inaccurate [media] reports”, one of which was headlined: ”Thousands of inmates to collect jail-free card”.
He said the bail re-assessments being carried out applied mainly to inmates granted bail of less than R1 000, who were accused of minor charges and who had not made bail ”simply because they are poor”.
The Criminal Procedure Act provided for the release or amendment of bail conditions of anyone charged with a less serious offence who could not afford to pay their bail or was being held under conditions which threatened their dignity, physical health or safety.
The legislation was intended to address the overcrowding of prisons, to which these awaiting-trial prisoners ”substantially contribute”, said Nqayi.
It set out a procedure under which a prison head could apply to a court to re-assess these inmates’ bail and, ”if appropriate”, order their release.
”This is therefore definitely not a ‘collect a jail-free card’,” he said.
The OCJSR had found it a priority to intervene and facilitate the re-assessment release of nearly 10 000 awaiting trial detainees.
”It is important to emphasise that the concerned [detainees] have gone through a court process and the courts have already ruled that they should be released back into society as they are not deemed to
pose any danger to society,” said Nqayi, adding that the government was not releasing any dangerous criminals.
He also pointed out that these were awaiting-trial people who had not been convicted and should be considered innocent until convicted.
He emphasised that charges were not being dropped against these detainees, whose court proceedings would proceed and who could still be sentenced to prison terms.
Nqayi said the reassessments would ”be a continuous process” and that there was no deadline for re-assessment, nor any directive that detainees be freed.
”Each case that is to be re-assessed will be considered on its own merits and therefore contrary to recent media reports, there are no plans to do a blanket release en masse of thousands of [detainees]”. — Sapa