Lack of proper crime intelligence one of the reasons for SA's high prison numbers, MPs told
Parliament’s correctional services committee received a briefing from the department, as well as the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services or JICS.
A multidisciplinary operation conducted by DCS and SAPS took place at Johannesburg prison on 24 July 2024 where inmates were searched for weapons, drugs and cellphones. Picture: Abigail Javier/Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - Prisons authorities have told Parliament of several challenges plaguing correctional facilities, from suicides to overcrowding, because detainees can’t afford bail.
Inspecting Judge Edwin Cameron also laid the blame on high prison numbers due to crime to the country’s lack of proper crime intelligence.
Parliament’s correctional services committee received a briefing from the department, as well as the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services or JICS.
MPs on Tuesday heard how there’d been a "vast ballooning" of prisoners serving life sentences from under 500 in 1995 to over 18,000 in 2024.
Members of the correctional services portfolio committee also questioned the high numbers of prisoners languishing in solitary confinement and the high number of remand detainees.
Cameron told the committee that a lack of crime intelligence was at the centre of the current situation.
"So there’s been a vast ballooning of persons serving life sentences while at the same time, since 2011, when under the previous presidency, the crime intelligence services were destroyed by the appointment of criminals to head crime intelligence."
Cameron said the capacity to fight violent crime also suffered as a result. He said South Africans had an 89% chance of not being prosecuted for murder, with only 11% of murders being prosecuted to success.