Programme News
23 May 2015
(News)
Unnatural deaths, public searches of bodies stripped naked, torture, overcrowding, violence, and a rampant spread of tuberculosis all run counter to the new set of guidelines on fair treatment for prisoners adopted by the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on Friday, which they have named the Mandela Rules.
The world forum also declared that Nelson Mandela...
8 May 2015
(News)
South Africa is often branded as a country with a high incarceration rate. In certain respects, this is true. For with 290 people per 100 000 imprisoned, it has the highest incarceration rate in Africa. But there is much more to prison population rates than a national headcount of bodies behind bars.
About two-thirds of the South African prison population have been sentenced to prison. The...
19 March 2015
(Press release)
In commemoration of Human Rights Day, Lawyers for Human Rights is hosting a cafe discussion on recent trends of using criminal law to target the poor. Discussions will examine the policies and decisions that exclude marginalised communities and limit their access to public space and services. Increasingly, authorities treat informal traders, beggars and the homeless as a threat to public safety....
27 February 2015
(Press release)
Human rights groups and organisations affirmed their commitment to advocating for human rights and constitutional compliance within the criminal justice sector in South Africa.
The Detention Justice Forum (DJF) comprises of civil society organisations concerned with the rights of detainees. It was established in March 2012 with the aim of ensuring that the rights and well-being of those who are...
28 November 2014
(News)
Lack of mattresses, a leaking roof, lack of hot water and insufficient access to medical treatment: Pollsmoor’s facility for awaiting trial prisoners has been slammed by civil society organisations for what they call “several concerns regarding conditions of detention at the facility.”
The Visitors Committee for Pollsmoor, the Treatment Action Campaign, Sonke Gender...
28 November 2014
(Press release)
The below organisations stand in solidarity with the family and loved ones of Michael Brown and those bereaved, angered and in danger in Ferguson and across the United States. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the reported mishandling of the prosecution of his killer, Officer Darren Wilson, are the most recent in a history of failures of the legal system to do justice when...
19 November 2014
(News)
On a cloudy Monday afternoon, an imposing group of watchful, youthful men and women in bright yellow bibs religiously congregate along Thabo Sehume street in central Pretoria. They do so almost every day, in different streets.
Their work is partly inscribed on their bright yellow bibs - Pretoria central community policing forum (CPF). Some in the group are wearing police issue black boots, some...
6 November 2014
(News)
Shocked MPs heard yesterday that four prison projects worth more than R1bn were still incomplete years after the contracts’ completion dates, due to defaulting contractors engaged by the Department of Public Works.
A delegation led by Department of Correctional Services acting national commissioner Zach Modise told a parliamentary committee that the construction of two prisons and the...
17 October 2014
(Press release)
The Wits Justice Project was disturbed to hear the unfounded allegations made against it by Acting National Commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Zach Modise. These allegations were made during the course of Acting Commissioner Modise’s testimony in the sentencing hearing of Oscar Pistorius, on Thursday 16 October 2014.
The Wits Justice Project is an independent...
16 October 2014
(News)
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...