prison privatisation in south africa issues, challenges and ...

Also, the CSA 1998 does a great deal to ensure that the responsibility for punishment rests with
the state and that only the services are delegated to the contractor.
One interesting component of the CSA 1998 is that it explicitly forbids private contractors from
becoming "involved in the implementation of community corrections."3 Community-based
corrections refers to an effort to build or rebuild social ties and a connection to the community in
order to prevent future violations. This usually includes obtaining employment or education and
assisting the offender with adapting to the routine functioning of society. In the United States,
prison researchers contend that the criminal justice system needs to incorporate more prison
alternatives offered by community corrections, such as halfway houses, parole, probation, and
work-release programs.
The private sector has been a significant part of community corrections in other countries, so it
is unclear why this area which is most likely to provide innovation and reform benefits from the
private sector would be specifically labelled off-limits in South Africa.
Various monitoring programmes have been tried in the countries which have introduced prison
privatisation, and none of them have proven to be immune to the phenomenon of capture.
However, the monitoring mechanisms which have been most successful at protecting the public
interest are those which are designated by statute rather than by a section in a contract.
The CSA 1998 states that a controller must be appointed by the Commissioner of Correctional
Services for each private prison, and then goes on to list the duties of the controller. However,
the controller still reports to the Commissioner, rather than to a separate regulatory body. It
should be noted that the CSA 1998 also requires all prisons, public or private, to be monitored
by the Judicial Inspectorate which is an independent agency. The prison visitor from the Judicial
Inspectorate for the private prisons will perform his or her normal monitoring duties, in addition
to that provided by the appointed controller. Thus, it seems probable that appropriate
monitoring, at least as it is designed in the legislation, will be in place for private prisons in South
Africa.
Ikhwezi Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts
Once the enabling legislation was passed, DCS was able to begin negotiations for the first
private prison contracts. The office which handled the contracts was the Asset Procurement and
Operating Partnership System (APOPS). This government agency was set up in 1996 to
oversee public-private partnerships.
The first private prison opened in Bloemfontein in July 2001, and the second will open in Louis
Trichardt in early 2002. The first contract, with Ikhwezi Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts
(BCC) is to design, finance, build, and manage a 3,024 bed facility in Grootvlei, Bloemfontein.
The second contract is with South African Custodial Services (SACS), a consortium which
includes Wackenhut Corrections Corporation. The sites were chosen because DCS already
owned sufficient land in these two areas, as both are adjacent to existing prisons.
Because only the BCC prison was nearing completion at the time of the writing of this
monograph, it is the one which will be examined in depth. BCC is a consortium made up of Fikile
Projects cc, Ten Alliance Holdings, Group 4 Correctional Services, Murray and Roberts
Construction and Bloemfontein Community Trust. Fikile Projects, Ten Alliance, and
Bloemfontein Community Trust are black empowerment companies. Each company owns 20%