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

BCC in a section entitled "Schedule D". The performance standards in Schedule D assist the
controller with his monitoring duties but they are also used by an audit review team which will
periodically visit the prison. Schedule D was adapted from the contracts used in the United
Kingdom with moderate variation. It includes seven basic goals which the prison is expected to
attain:
Keep prisoners in custody.
Maintain order, control, discipline, and a safe environment.
Provide decent conditions and meet prisoner needs.
Provide a structured day programme.
Prepare prisoners for their return to the community.
Delivery of prison services.
Community involvement.
It is difficult to ascertain whether these goals will be achieved and whether the monitoring
mechanisms will be effective because the prison has only recently opened. However, the
specificity of the contract is encouraging. Under each of the goals, as many as 30 separate
points were listed as necessary activities. Some examples include the requirement that the
contractor will provide postage for one letter per week for each prisoner, each prisoner will
receive a free haircut every three weeks, and that there should be one newspaper per 15
prisoners. Some of these seem too specific to be effectively monitored, but their inclusion is
encouraging proof that the government and the contractor are serious about taking the provision
of correctional services to a level unseen in South Africa.
The security at the BCC prison is very specifically outlined in the contract, and is also
necessarily improved from the public sector given the modern design of the prison itself. All the
gates can be opened electronically, whereas most public prisons operate entirely with keys. The
design of smaller cells with few prisoners in each one allows for much more effective monitoring
of harmful situations, including bullying. Each cell at the BCC prison has a panic button which
the prisoner can press if he is in need of assistance from the guard. This button turns on a red
light which cannot be switched off without the guard actually venturing over to the cell to check
out the problem. A computer automatically records the date and time when the button is
pushed, and so incidents can be more easily verified. The BCC prison is designed and
organized in such a way that it holds much promise for being considerably safer and more
secure than the public prisons in South Africa.
The number one complaint amongst prisoners in South Africa is that the food is terrible. Not just
the lack of nutritional content, but also the timing of meals is unsatisfactory as prisoners are fed
only twice each day. In one prison, the management claimed that the prisoners are fed three
meals, but two are served simultaneously.
In the BCC contract, the contractor is specifically required to serve three meals each day, one of
which must be hot, and the time between each meal is not to be less than four and a half hours
or more than six hours. The time between dinner and breakfast is not to exceed 14 hours, and
30 minutes will be provided to eat breakfast while 60 minutes will be provided for lunch and
dinner. Food is never to be withheld as a disciplinary measure, and appropriate utensils and
condiments must also be provided. This is an obvious improvement on the food service
standards in public sector prisons, although the existence of the standards on paper is not as
convincing as observing such standards in practice. Still, the fact that these standards are
written down and signed by both parties in a binding legal document is extremely encouraging.