Children in Prison in South Africa - Community Law Centre

At the Pollsmoor Admission Centre, where childrenawait placement e.lsewhere, communal cells with acapacity of 16 or 28 held between 28 to 33 youth. Atthe time of the visit, each single cell housed threeinmates. At Leeuwkop, the cells were' larger thanusual and generally held about 28 prisoners. At thetime of the visit, however, there were 36 prisoners inthe cell in which the children were kept. At theJohannesburg Medium A Prison, cells designed for32 prisoners accommodated over 36 occupants.Boksburg Prison also suffers from overcrowding. At thetime of the visit, the juvenile section was -200% full.Communal cells in E1 are designed to accommodate17 prisoners each, but were sleeping 38 people atthe time of the visit. E2 had 21 prisoners in cells built•for 11 inmates, while the larger cells, intended for 19prisoners, slept 38 inmates. In Section E3, the communalcells built for 11 inmates slept 21, and sectionE4 accommodated 25 prisoners in 21 ëingle cells.At Barberton, researchers noted that the prison hada population of 493 prisoners, in accommodationdesigned for 450. 99 of these prisoners were adultmales awaiting trial, Who were being held in two cramped,airless.cells without beds. Of the 394 sentencedprisoners, thirty nine were on the records as children.Often the prisoners responsible for cooking sleep in aseparate room, on the grounds that they keep differenthours. At Rustenburg, they'share a separate room forseven which is furnished with two television sets, avideo cassette recorder (VCR) and a small stereomusic system.They are allowed to watch televisionall day provided they have finished their duties.At Leeuwkop Medium B, prisoners playing in a bandare accommodated in one cell, and members of thechoir in another. The ages of youth in these cells alsovaried. The band members-were anxious that it beexplained to the community that they are trying totake steps to rehabilitate themselves and that theydid not want to go back to crime. A large 'Don't doCrime' poster was hanging in the choir cell.Generally, it appears that staff at some of the prisonsalso separate juveniles according to gang membershipin an attempt to control gang activity. At St Albans, youthawaiting trial are separated first according to gahgmembership and second according to age and size.At Barberton, in addition to the large cells describedin the section on Cell Accommodation, there are 32single cells in which prisoners on further charges aresegregated. These have only a tiny window high inthe wall. • ,There were, however, exceptions. At Barberton,again, the. cell in which most of the children wereaccommodated was approximately 23 metres inlength and occupied by 28 prisoners. It is authorisedto hold up to 43. At Rustenburg Juvenile Prison, theprison was below capacity on the day of the visit.Other ways of segregating prisonersIn addition to the separation of juveniles from adultsby age, as discussed in the previous chapter, prisonsuse other criteria when allocating young inmates toparticular cells.Thus, in the,section of Pollsmoor set aside for juvenilesawaiting trial, youth are separated into cells accordingto their age and size, keeping the small boys kepttogether. In contrast to this, convicted children aredivided between two cells: one for those whocooperate and attend school, and another for the so- •called 'difficult' juveniles. This latter is also consideredto be a punishment cell.