Police fail to investigate prison assaults
Police fail to investigate prison assaults
A scant 130 disciplinary cases were instituted against prison officials for assault and torture despite more than 4,000 cases being reported in 2013-14, indicating a culture of impunity at the Department of Correctional Services, a parliamentary committee was told on Wednesday.
The Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative’s Lukas Muntingh told the justice and correctional services committee the figures showed correctional services did not take seriously its constitutional obligation to prevent the ill-treatment and torture of prisoners.
He said it was apparent there was a deep reluctance in the South African Police Service (SAPS) to investigate, and in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prosecute, prison officials for the abuse of prisoners. "The figures on disciplinary action instituted against (department) officials for assault pale in comparison to the volume of complaints lodged with the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, he said.
A total of 4,203 complaints were lodged with the inspectorate but only 130 disciplinary actions for assault were instituted against officials. "While the (department) evidently institutes disciplinary action against very few of its officials for assaults and torture, the NPA and the SAPS are also part of the problem," Mr Muntingh said.
The NPA had declined to prosecute in four deaths in Durban prisons. Mr Muntingh said while there might be legitimate reasons for not prosecuting, these were not known and there was the real possibility that investigations were being deliberately frustrated, as had been revealed by the Jali commission of inquiry into correctional services.
Acting national commissioner of correctional services Zach Modise told the committee that all assaults were reported to the SAPS.
In a written submission to the committee, Clare Ballard of Lawyers for Human Rights expressed concern over the lengthy periods detainees spent in prison awaiting trial. She said that in 2011 more than 24,000 remand detainees out of more than 50,000 had been in custody for more than three months.
About 14% of those detained had been in custody for 12 months awaiting trial, and about 3% to 4% waited for two years to go on trial.
"This means that literally thousands of people in SA spend long stretches without access to educational or rehabilitative programmes," Ms Ballard said.
In a separate development, international security company G4S’s Africa president, Andy Baker, said correctional services had signed on July 31 for the G4S response to the allegations of torture and forced injections at the Mangaung prison. G4S runs the prison, one of the largest private prisons in the world, in terms of a contract signed in 2000.
Mr Baker’s reply follows Mr Modise’s claim on Tuesday that finalisation of the report on the prison was being held up because his department was awaiting G4S’s response.