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Despite measures implemented by the department of justice and correctional services to protect inmates since the start of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, there are concerns among some civil society organisations and legal experts about the adequacy of these measures.
Spotlight spoke to an inmate and family member who painted a desperate picture of current conditions in at least one correctional facility. Civil society organisations working on prisons-related issues also say they have been receiving worrying reports, although these are anecdotal.
By April 20 there were 111 confirmed Covid-19 cases in different correctional facilities in provinces across the country, including the Eastern Cape with East London Correctional Centre and St Albans Correctional Centre, as well as Worcester Correctional Facility in the Western Cape.
Limpopo also joined the list, with two prison officials who tested positive, according to the department’s update.
One official at the department head office has also tested positive. So far, 54 of the total cases are prison officials and 57 are inmates.
According to figures provided by the Africa Criminal Justice Reform programme of the Dullah Omar Institute, there are 162 800 prisoners – sentenced and not yet sentenced – in South Africa’s correctional facilities.
Department’s plan to protect prisoners
Department spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo told Spotlight that the department’s approach had been focused on prevention, containment, treatment and disaster recovery.
“The department activated infection prevention control measures at all management areas, with specific directives to ensure that personal protective equipment (PPE) is availed, and has pushed for the sanitation of reception areas, cells, offices, vehicles and ablution facilities,” he said.
According to Nxumalo, there has been screening at correctional centres and supplies are being provided continuously, both for inmates and officials.
“Improving personal and environmental hygiene, provision of personal equipment, sanitisation and decontamination interventions is what we have been doing and continue to do,” he said.
“Where shortages are experienced, the department has a system in place to assist correctional centres in need of stock while awaiting delivery. Centres have a flexibility to share resources and we continue to engage with officials and inmates.”
Visits were suspended at all prisons after the president declared a national state of disaster in March.
“Due to the suspension of visits, we issued a circular advising correctional centres to increase their buying power. This will allow inmates to buy more items from the tuck shops. We have also ramped up toiletries that the state provide to inmates so that offenders are not disadvantaged. Inmates are able to utilise telephones within their units for keeping in contact with their families,” said Nxumalo.
He said the movement of inmates had been limited to an extent that court appearances could be done through the audio-visual remand system. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng earlier issued a directive to all courts to postpone criminal trials until after the nationwide lockdown.
Nxumalo also noted other measures the department had put in place.
“We have hospitals inside centres, so only complicated cases are referred to outside hospitals. We also searching and subjecting our officials to security scrutiny continues to prevent contraband. We have also procured mobile quarantine sites which will assist to isolate those who may have acquired the virus while awaiting to be moved to outside hospitals, especially in those centres with overcrowding,” he said.
Are these measures enough?
Professor Lukas Muntingh, project head for the Africa Criminal Justice Reform programme, said it was essential to have measures in place to prevent Covid-19 from reaching the prison population.
“You’ve got to fight it at the gates. You can’t fight it at the courtyard. Once it’s in a prison population, then there is no way you can maintain social distance. So the best thing is to protect the prison population from infection,” he said.
Responding to whether these measures are sufficient, Muntingh said: “The short answer is that we don’t know. They tell us that certain things have been done, but we hear different stories. Coming from the outside... It is very difficult to assess what is actually happening.”
Zia Wasserman, the national prisoners co-ordinator at Sonke Gender Justice, raised similar concerns.
“From what we know from the regulations that have been implemented and from statements, there are several interventions that have been put into place. It’s great that at least some attention has been given to the prisons and it was done quite early on, but they are definitely not sufficient,” Wasserman said.
“[We] receive complaints almost on a daily basis from families of incarcerated people who are saying that [the prevention measures] are not happening.
“Anecdotal evidence is telling us that there is no PPE and there are no masks, gloves or hand sanitiser. Those precautionary measures are not being put into place and that’s incredibly concerning.”
Painting a different picture
Mrs X*, whose husband is in the Johannesburg Correctional Centre, also known as Sun City, told Spotlight that she was worried about her husband. The weekend of March 14 was the last time the family saw each other.
According to Mrs X, it was on March 15 that her husband told her all visits had been suspended. Since then, she told Spotlight, the prison authorities “had not been assisting prisoners in remaining in contact with their families”.
“The prison has done nothing to accommodate us or [the inmates] to contact their families. If we [had been] told that we would not see our loved ones we could have made arrangements to get more toiletries to him,” she said.
Mrs X and her husband have since found ways to communicate.
“My husband told me there were between 30 and 37 people sleeping in a cell, and the beds are about half a meter apart. The inmates do not like to open windows for fresh air. They cough on each other. There is no social distancing being practiced in the cells,” she said.
Spotlight also spoke to Mr X*
According to Mr X, prison authorities first told inmates about the virus on Friday March 19. He said inmates were briefed on the basics and told to wash their hands, wear face masks and gloves, and to cough in their sleeve “just as the pamphlets and TV are showing everyone to do”.
“We are all worried about our wellbeing in prison, as we can see what is going on in the world and in other prisons. We are worried about our families and loved ones,” he said.
Mr X appealed to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola “to better protect the prisoners”.
“I am very frustrated. First, my family and I are close and I can’t see them, so it’s very difficult. I am worried about my wife and kids, and the rest of my family. Second, I am very disappointed in Lamola. I feel that he is not doing all he can to keep us safe.
“We are pleading with Lamola to take ownership of his wrongs, just as we as prisoners have to do, because soon there will be deaths on [his] hands.
“Stand up and admit that you do not have this situation under control in prisons as you would like our families and South Africa to believe. Do the right thing, minister,” he pleaded.
Some of Mr X’s claims on safety measures in the correctional facility include:
. “They took our visits away, that is the extent of the safety measures that have been taken.”
. “They have given us some cleaning material that has been watered down so that it can last longer.”
. “We can contact our lawyers if we need to, but we don’t have visits to receive world call vouchers to use the call box and there is only one call box in the whole section.”
. “We are not able to lay any complaints with the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services [Jics].”
When asked to respond to these allegations, Nxumalo denied the veracity of the claims.
“That is impossible. Inmates do utilise the register, and this is done every morning on a daily basis. In that register, inmates can then place a request to report a matter to any office. It could be the national office, the Judicial Inspectorate, or other structures,” Nxumalo said.
In response to claims of overcrowding, he said there were measures in place to mitigate the spread of the virus should cases be identified in the cells. The measures include the use of park homes for quarantine and isolation purposes. Nxumalo also dismissed claims of watered down cleaning or sanitising materials.
“The department procured appropriate decontamination and PPE, and we have stated that there is no shortage as we are managing stock levels.”
Nelson Mandela Rules
However, Mr X insists that inmates at Sun City want better protection.
“The inmates want the Nelson Mandela Rules applied. They want the minister to do as the UN suggested and what other countries have done for prisoners. That is to release low risk and non-violent crime prisoners,” Mr X said.
According to Wasserman and Muntingh, the Nelson Mandela Rules Mr X is referring to are the recommendations which were released by the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The recommendations outlined measures that should be taken to protect prisoners during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Muntingh said South Africa, as a state party to the
Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, should note the recommendations.
“I think the [recommendations] should be given serious consideration and if there are reasons not to follow them, then the department must record those motivations. But I think they are well intentioned, and the department must follow them as far as possible,” Muntingh said.
Wasserman said that the Detention Justice Forum (DJF), of which Sonke Gender Justice is a part, had sent a letter to various government departments including the presidency, correctional services, as well as health, outlining the recommendations.
“In our letter, we tried to make [the recommendations] context-specific. I think they are quite easy or doable things, practical measures that can be put in place,” she explained.
Wasserman said they had not yet received an official response from government, except for departments noting the receipt of their correspondence.
The DJF, a coalition of civil society organisations comprising non-government organisations and individuals, is concerned with making sure that the rights and wellbeing of prisoners are upheld.
Some of the recommendations made by the DJF include providing inmates with alternative methods to contact their families and loved ones while visits are suspended.
“If there are no [prison] visits then you increase alternative methods of contacting the outside world, especially legal representatives,” Wasserman said.
She stressed that having contact with the outside world was essential to the psychological wellbeing of inmates.
Dealing with overcrowding
Another recommendation is to reduce overcrowding in prisons by releasing some of the population, which has been done in several other countries. Wasserman said those who should be released include “the elderly who have underlying health conditions, pregnant women, children and people who are there for non-violent offences who would be out in the next year”.
When asked if this is feasible, Wasserman said it would be possible, particularly as government had released prisoners on special remission a few months ago. The remission she referred to was announced on December 16 2019, granted by President Cyril Ramaphosa, and allowed for the reduction of certain prisoners’ sentences resulting in their early release.
Others such as Safura Abdool Karim, a public health lawyer and researcher based at the Wits School of Public Health, said the remand prison population should also be reduced.
“Just more than 27% of all prisoners in the prison system are who we call remand prisoners. Those are people who are in the prison system not because they have been convicted and sentenced but because they are awaiting a verdict in their case or are unable to afford bail,” she said.
Abdool Karim said while regulations by the correctional services department allowed for prisoners to appear in front of a judge using audio-visual equipment, this process was only used to postpone trials.
“Remand prisoners, in particular, are having their rights infringed in this process on multiple levels, from their right to a fair trial to their right to bail to their right to health,” she said.
Oversight and transparency
“A situation like this will definitely place the rights of prisoners at risk, therefore you need maximum transparency,” Muntingh said.
“It’s not only about protecting prisoners from infection. It’s about ensuring that their rights are upheld under the Constitution and that we meet our obligations under international law.”
This oversight, she said, is the duty of Jics.
Former Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron, inspecting judge for the inspectorate, told Spotlight that inmates may “continue to make telephone calls to Jics officials through the protocol channels”.
“Complaints have indeed been received during the lockdown, and are being attended to.
“Currently, Jics, through its regional structures, is in daily communication with every head of centre. The inspectorate can, and regularly does, request the department of correctional services to furnish it with documentation [such as medical and other records, as well as internal investigation reports].
“Any matter for mandatory reporting that may arise at a centre will be given appropriately urgent attention to ensure that Jics’ oversight duties are fulfilled, despite the limitations we’re functioning under during the lockdown,” Cameron said.
He noted that the department had tried to address some of the psychological needs of inmates.
“This includes the need, particularly acute right now, to communicate with their families. For this reason, the department has extended inmates’ telephone hours during the lockdown to enable them to maintain contact with their families,” he said.
When asked if he as was satisfied with department’s operational plan on how to deal with Covid-19, Cameron said: “It’s like many government plans; it’s mostly good and mostly very promising. The plan addresses the basic measures to be taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in correctional facilities, and it certainly seems adequate.”
Spotlight also put Mr and Mrs X’s claims to the inspectorate. Jics spokesperson Emerantia Cupido said the inspectorate was aware of “several complaints from inmates, including those relating to Covid-19”. “In each case, the regional management communicates with the head of the particular [correctional] centre in an effort to resolve the complaint.”
However, Cupido said Jics had not received complaints from inmates at Sun City. When asked if Jics had any concerns about the department’s operational plan, Cupido said they were “cognisant of the fact that overcrowding at correctional centres remains a potential risk for the spread of the virus, and continue to engage with department during this crisis to ensure that Jics’ mandate is being fulfilled under these Covid-19 restrictions”.
Spotlight requested a copy of the department’s operational plan, but Nxumalo denied the request. “That’s an internal document and we are a security department. We cannot share such information. It will leave us vulnerable to possible threats.”
*Mr and Mrs X asked to remain anonymous. The Sonke Gender Justice Prison Transformation Project facilitated their contact through its networks in the prison community
This article was produced by Spotlight, an online publication monitoring South Africa’s response to TB and HIV
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