Apparently, Oscar’s demeanour has totally changed since he first entered prison. This insight was provided by a team of officers who talk to up to 40 inmates a day, listening to their complaints of life inside.

Two of those officers, Violet Ngobeni and Boitumelo Morake, met with Pistorius multiple times. “When he arrived he was angry,” said Ngobeni outside Kgosi Mampuru II prison. “The first time I went to see him he was like ‘I don’t want to talk to anyone.'” Ngobeni and Morake first met Pistorius soon after he was imprisoned for killing his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine’s Day, 2013. They say he initially struggled to adapt to prison life, where he had to spend 23 hours a day in his cell. But they say he’s since changed dramatically. “Now he can sit down and discuss and laugh at the same time,” Ngobeni said.

A high profile prisoner, Oscar has been given a private cell and separate toilet. He is situated in a hospital ward because he is a double amputee. During the months he has been there, he has complained about the various aspects of his living conditions and, well, his requests have been answered. He wanted a bath – so they built one in his cell. He complained about his bed, so they got him a new one. He had an issue with his gym equipment so they replaced it. This was all confirmed by Murasiet Mentoor, the regional manager of the Judicial Inspectorate, who reviews hundreds of written prisoner complaints.

And while Mentoor says most prisoners complained about the food, Pistorius did it out of fear. “Oscar was worried that the food in the prison might be poisoned and that it would affect his health,” he said. Mentoor said prison officials offered to let Pistorius cook the raw produce, but he preferred to only buy processed food from the prison store.

Ngobeni and Morake, the officers who check up on Oscar and other inmates through an independent inspection arm of correctional services, say when they last visited Oscar, it was when he thought he was about to be released into corrective supervision.

He just talked about “I miss my family, I need to spend more time with my family, just to go out and see my friends.

But, after South Africa’s Justice Minister decided to review the parole board’s recommendation for early release, he’ll have to carry on #ComplainingForChange.

[source: cnn]