Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Ruth Hopkins

latest news & developments
On Thursday, correctional services commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale said the findings of an investigation report “clearly revealed” Thabo Bester was assisted in his escape from custody on 3 May. Photo: Supplied
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES

Thabo Bester escape a fraction of the rot at G4S-run private jail

However, abuse and torture at the prison have improved, the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services says

  • Eunice Masson
7 min read
THE MISERY MERCHANTS: LIFE AND DEATH IN A PRIVATE SOUTH AFRICAN PRISON by Ruth Hopkins (Jacana)
BOOKS

Three new nonfiction book reviews

Shaun de Waal reviews three nonfiction books by Ruth Hopkins, Philippa Garson and Tom Eaton

  • Shaun De Waal
3 min read
Kgosi Mampuru sources claimed that negligence was rife at the facility, resulting in the suspicious deaths of inmates, as well as the brazen escape of 9 December 2020. (Oupa Nkosi, M&G)
ADRIAAN BASSON

Merchants of despair

When imprisonment becomes a business, the profit motive rears its head at the expense of the good of the prisoners. Three recent books deal with the murky workings of the…

  • Casper Lӧtter
7 min read
Mystery medication: In a video leaked to the Wits Justice Project, Mangaung prison inmate Bheki Dlamini, after being removed from his cell by warders, clearly indicates his dissent before being held down and injected with a substance
RUTH HOPKINS

‘Forced injections made us act like zombies’

Prison inmates say they were injected with an unidentified substance

  • Ruth Hopkins
2 min read
Detainees await tuberculosis testing at Pollsmoor
POLLSMOOR PRISON

Pollsmoor prisoners treated ‘worse than animals’

Lice, grime, broken toilets and six-hour waits for visitors: life is tough in Cape Town’s Pollsmoor prison.

  • Ruth Hopkins
7 min read
The warders in ‘Sun City’ are hugely outnumbered and often don’t possess the training to maintain order.
RUTH HOPKINS

Fear, force and sex in Sun City

The inability of warders to handle increasing violence is turning the infamous Johannesburg prison into a sexual predator’s haven.

  • Ruth Hopkins
6 min read
The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of a former awaiting trial detainee who contracted TB while in Pollsmoor prison.
RUTH HOPKINS

Presumed guilty until trial in court

Thousands of people have been languishing in prison for years without having been convicted and the causes of judicial delays are manifold.

  • Ruth Hopkins
6 min read
Sisters probe TB scourge in prison
RUTH HOPKINS

Sisters probe TB scourge in prison

Two siblings have demanded answers after their brother went to jail healthy but came out "deadly sick".

  • Ruth Hopkins
8 min read