WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-01-16 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 1/16/2004 5:27:43 AM
S.Africa: Some prisons are 300% overcrowded
[Note. Bizarre as it is, more blacks are in prison AFTER Apartheid, than before? But then too… blacks no longer fear the law… at all… They’ve had to build new prisons, and even this can’t come close to handling the situation. Consider too, that criminals are arrested, get off on some technicality or are just let go… only to go away, commit a crime and return. This should give you an idea of just how much crime has sky-rocketed here in the last 10 years… beyond all imagination.
It really appears to me, that blacks need to be kicked in line through fear, and this is exactly what whites did. Then blacks were much more law-abiding. I once saw on TV where a coloured man said that they no longer feared the law. But, he said, in the days of white rule, they feared the “Big white Policeman” who would give them a slap to the side of their heads!! I grew up on a farm, and I know a thing or two about dealing with “native blacks”. You have to treat them like you’d treat a teenage boy – you have to discipline them, or else they won’t listen to you or respect you. It may sound bizarre, but I saw this when I was a kid. Jan]
Although the overcrowding of South Africa’s prisons has improved, there are still too many awaiting-trial prisoners – and more than 1 300 have been awaiting trial for more than two years.
And, according to the head of Pollsmoor Prison’s admissions centre, Daniel Scholtz, its longest awaiting-trial prisoner was arrested and charged with rape in November 1998.
The man, who cannot be identified, is expected to appear in the Wynberg regional court again on May 10 this year.
Inspecting Judge of Prisons Hannes Fagan has described the awaiting-trial periods as “scandalous” and said that it cost taxpayers R110 per day to house one prisoner.
It cost taxpayers R110 per day to house one prisoner. Of the country’s 180 000 prisoners across the country, 50 623 are awaiting trial. Fagan hopes to reduce the number to 20 000.
In terms of the number of prisoners per capita, South Africa fared the third worst in the world with four in every 1 000 people behind bars. The US was the worst, with seven in every 1 000 people in prison.
“About 11 600 awaiting-trial prisoners are too poor to pay bail – in some cases, less than R1 000.”
Fagan said the solution was not to build more prisons.
A number of strategies could be pursued to reduce the number of prisoners, he said. This included not arresting people for petty crimes.
The overpopulation of our prisons continues to be a major challenge
“Prisons are for serious matters,” he said, citing examples of people imprisoned because they could not afford to pay a fine for failing to buy a train ticket.
Fagan also added that suspended sentences should be encouraged as well as plea bargaining, speeding up trials, and periodic imprisonment.
Periodic imprisonment, which is often used with child support offences, is when an offender is sentenced to a number of hours to be served over weekends.
Durban Medium C prison is the most overcrowded, and has 2 446 prisoners in accommodation designed for 671 (365 percent overcrowded).
Umtata, Mount Frere, Johannesburg Medium B, Thohoyandou Female Prison in Limpopo, Middledrift and Bizana all have overcrowding rates of more than 300 percent.
Pollsmoor’s admissions centre, where awaiting trial prisoners are held, has more than 3 800 prisoners in facilities designed to hold 1 872.
This created further problems because prisoners could not be rehabilitated, Fagan said.
“How can you teach them if there isn’t any sleeping space?”
He also explained that the quality of food worsened, as well as health services and education.
Prison officials also found it more difficult to control gangs, he said.
Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Victor Monyemangene said in a statement that strategies adopted to alleviate overcrowding in-
cluded:
Ensuring that children were held in secure facilities, in reformatory schools, or under the authority of the Department of Social Services
Improving the efficiency of the courts, prosecution and police sectors
Streamlining court processes
He said the overcrowding impacted negatively on staff morale.
“The overpopulation of our prisons continues to be a major challenge and it is clear that the unacceptably high occupancy rate will continue to be a problem in the forseeable future,” Monyemangene said.
This article was originally published on page 6 of The Cape Times on January 16, 2004
Source: IOL
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&ar…br>