Prisons should not be fun, but they should be nothing like what we have. A slap in the face to basic human rights, a cesspool of disease, abuse and mismanagement. Reading a government report on our prisons, the notion of rehabilitation becomes the biggest joke since a chicken stepped off a curb.

A recent report by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services shows the dire state South African prisons are in. Every page reads like a list of settings for a nightmarish b-grade horror film. Inmates sleep on the floor, are not provided with meals, juveniles do not attend school, facilities do not have fencing, gangsterism is rife, as is sexual abuse, and there is a severe lack of medical staff. The list goes on and on. You do not want to be in a South African prison.

Take this quote from the report itself:

Inmates were assaulted with batons or shock-shields used in conjunction with water. Some are placed in single cells for days without food or basic amenities and some are transferred subsequently to avoid these cases coming under [the] scrutiny of the SAPS.

If we start with the financial mismanagement, it is easy to see how everything has gone so far to shit. The report found R71 million in wasteful expenditure and R215 million in irregular expenditure. Perhaps most telling is that there’s official confusion as to the number of prisons that we have. The Mail and Guardian reports that “according to the department’s annual report, there are 243 correctional centres, but according to the report there are 236. The department has not explained the discrepancy.”

Reading through the report, which  “articulates the activities within the three core programmes of the Judicial Inspectorate” between  April and June, instills a feeling of cold-fear, shame, and horror. The report’s flat, unfeeling language describes alleged assault by guards, rape, suicide, gangsterism, and those imprisoned for years without their case even being heard before a judge.

Suicide still remains the biggest cause of unnatural deaths in South African prisons. Last year there were 47 unnatural deaths, which included 12 cases of murder, four of which were as a result of violence by warders on inmates. For 16 cases, the department was not able to supply the cause of the deaths because it did not have the post-mortem reports.

The Mail and Guardian spoke to Clare Ballard, legal researcher at the University of the Western Cape Law Clinic, who pointed out that:

This is interesting when you compare it to the mental illness indicator which says that 98% of inmates who have requested mental health assistance have been treated . . . If suicide is the major cause of unnatural deaths then you have to question the quality of this treatment.

Those dying from natural causes do not have it any easier as at least 32% of prisons do not have a doctor or nurse on the premises. The report shows of the 804 prisoners who died of “natural deaths”, 110 were caused by tuberculosis (TB), 74 from HIV/Aids and 76 from pneumonia. Many prisoners will have contracted these diseases in prison. Compare this with a study by TB expert Professor Robin Wood that shows how there is a 90% risk of transmission of TB at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. Finally, to make things worse, prisoners suffering from multiple and extreme drug resistant TB are only segregated to prevent transmission in 40% of prisons.

With financial mismanagement, upkeep of infrastructure issues, supply-chain problems, and a shortage of staff all major issues, they are being compounded by the problem of remanded detainees, who make up 30% of the population. As the Mail and Guadian reports:

The Jics report said while it was difficult to determine the extent to which the police made wrongful arrests, it was estimated that ‘in excess of 18 000 people per month were unnecessarily arrested by the police and consequently ended up in prison awaiting trial’

The department refused to answer specific questions surrounding the report, the Mail and Guardian said. However, Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, in a statement, said: “The department is currently implementing a turnaround strategy and plan to ensure improved financial management with respect to the identified weaknesses.”