Prisons

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New book by Edwin Cameron gives practical steps to reform prisons

“The biggest public policy mistake of the last 125 years was the war on drugs”

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News | 8 June 2025

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Hundreds of state mental health patients are being kept in prison

There are not enough beds in South Africa’s 13 psychiatric hospitals

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News | 1 June 2025

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Presumed guilty! Years in prison awaiting trial

Goodwood prison massively overcrowded, judge’s report finds

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News | 5 May 2025

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Prisoners can use computers to study in their cells, says Constitutional Court

Current policy is unconstitutional, court rules

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Law | 30 April 2025

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Coming soon: fund to help people pay bail

Bail Fund will address the “injustice of being detained simply because of poverty”

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News | 17 March 2025

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Explainer: why South Africa’s prisons are overcrowded

Our prisons have about 105,000 beds but there are over 156,000 prisoners

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Analysis | 4 December 2024

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This man spent nine years in jail before the charges against him were withdrawn

Now the state is challenging the court ruling of wrongful arrest

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Law | 26 November 2024

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The rights of prisoners must be protected, even if we dislike them

Solitary confinement is torture

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GroundView | 19 September 2024

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Thabo Bester and hundreds of other prisoners kept in unlawful conditions, says inspectorate

Report argues that solitary confinement is a form of torture

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News | 18 September 2024

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Key law on prisons watchdog stuck in the pipeline

Judicial Inspectorate of prisons is still accountable to the very department over which it is meant to have oversight, says lawyer

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News | 27 August 2024

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Elections 2024: South Africa is one of the few African countries where prisoners can vote

But the right of prisoners to vote has at times been resisted by the government and the Independent Electoral Commission

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News | 24 April 2024

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No sign of accountability for Thabo Bester’s escape

Eight months since the highly publicised Parliamentary hearing, little action has been taken by Parliament or Correctional Services

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Analysis | 11 December 2023

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Prisoner computer ban struck down

Correctional Services has 12 months to revise the current policy

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News | 8 November 2023

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Court error causes years of delay in prisoner’s appeal

Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services received 2,244 complaints from prisoners appealing their sentences. KZN accounted for nearly half of these.

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News | 16 October 2023

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Victim of wrongful arrest gets R2.6-million from Minister of Police

Ntokozo Patrick Xulu spent 813 days behind bars

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Law | 19 September 2023

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Government responds to report on solitary confinement

Prisoners are held according to the law, writes the Department of Correctional Services spokesperson

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Right to reply | 7 September 2023