Children in Prison in South Africa - Community Law Centre

Separation of sentenced and unsentencedchildren"Unt/ied detainees should be separated fromconvicted juveniles. " (UN RULES U)Generally, where unsentenced and sentenced childrenare accommodated in the same facility, they are keptseparately. In Johannesburg Prison, sentenced andunsentenced juveniles are held in separate prisons andin separate sections. The juveniles awaiting trial are heldon the ground floor of their section. The sentencedjuveniles are accommodated on three storeys, or onespoke, of the wagon wheel building.At Upington, the unsentenced children are kept in alarge cell. At Thohoyandou, it was reported that the, unsentenced male juveniles never come into contactwith the adults.However, no prison in the Northern Province has discretefacilities for sentenced and unsentenced juveniles.At Malmesbury, at the time of the visit, sentencedand unsentenced juveniles under 18 were being kepttogether in one cell because of lack of space. Asnoted earlier, the authorities reported that this prisonis constantly receiving juveniles from other centres.This, they said, creates problems as their cells arealways full.At Thohoyandou Female Prison, unsentenced femalechildren are kept separately from sentenced offenders,but occupy cells with women up to approximately 35years of age. At the time of the visit, there were fivebabies in one of the cells. Cots are provided.Cell conditions"Everyone who is detained, including every sentencedprisoner has the right ...to conditions of detentionthat are consistent with human dignity, including atleast... the provision, at state expense, of adequateaccommodation. " (SA CONSTITUTION, SECTION 35)"Juveniles deprived of their liberty have the right tofacilities and services that meet all the requirementsof health and human dignity. " (UN RULES, 31)The conditions of the cells vary from prison to prison.In some cases, as at the We.stville Youth Centre, cellswere described as "scruffy but clean". Àt Stanger,cells were reported to be unclean, with walls andpaintwork in poor condition. At Leeuwkop, the cellwalls were drab and unpainted, and some of the cellsfairly dark.At the Johannesburg Medium A Juvenile Prison, thecell for unsentenced children is dark with no outwardfacing windows. On one side it overlooks seweragepipes, and on the other a corridor. The lights'are onall day. At St Albans, the walls are dull and unpainted.In the Westville Women's Prison, the girls complainedof old and peeling paintwork! and it was noted thatone of the cells was damp and leaking.