Children in Prison in South Africa - Community Law Centre

At Pretoria Central, a new prison, the boys.are onlyallowed to exercise in the open air once a week. Therest of the week they must exercise in the internalpassage between the cells. The weather in South Africausually permits exercise outdoors at least once a day.It is, therefore, quite inexplicable why this brand newprison (construction was not even complete at the timeof the visit) has no outdoor exercise facility. The prisonis considering building a larger indoor exercise facilityfor the juveniles.According to the authorities, a Physical Educationinstructor does physical training each day with thejuveniles in the section. However, not all the juvenilesagreed that this happened.At Pretoria Local, the sentenced juveniles are allowedto play soccer and volleyball twice a week. It seems,however, that the tiled courtyard is unsafe in wet weather.At Virginia, the boys said they could 'walk around inthe courtyard', or play ball, from 8h00 until I5h00 when.they are locked up. There is no organised sport.At Rustenburg, the majority of the boys prefer footballwhich they play over weekends only. They may also playvolleyball, cricket, softball or join the choir. For the restof the weekend, they watch television and attend church.There is a library which appeared to be in use by someof the juveniles and which employs a qualified librarian.At St Alban's Prison, the juveniles are 'sometimes'allowed to play soccer, volley ball and rugby. There isa choir, and a library which is funded by donations fromthe community. At the time of the visit, there was norecreation provided whatsoever in the unsentencedsection, not even a ball for the children to kick.At Pietersburg Women's Prison, the sentencedoffenders (including the adults) share a television set.They are allowed to watch until 22h00 on weekdaysand until midnight on weekends. The rest of the timeis spent reading outdated books and magazines lentto them by the officers or other prisoners, or baskingin the sun in their courtyard. Juvenile girls at this prisonwere not aware that they could borrow books fromthe library. However, they said that they participatedin the choir and played basketball after church at theweekends. At Thohoyandou, the unsentenced girlchildren have no recreation at all. This is the casein many facilities for unsentenced children. A similarsituation prevails at institutions where children arekept while waiting placement elsewhere.At Westville, however, an inter-sectoral group and theDepartment of Welfare have - recently attempted toprovide some activities for children awaiting trial.This has drawn in NGOs and religious groups whoorganise activities, such as gumboot dancing.At Malmesbury, where many of the children awaitplacement in reform schools, there is no form ofactivity at all for the children. In the morning, theyspend about one and a half hours in the courtyard,after which they are again locked up for the day.During the recreation period they may play cards,keerim and drafts. They have recently been providedwith a volley ball net. Because the authorities wish toavoid contact between the juveniles and the adults,the juveniles spend most of the day in their cells,and leave them only for meals.At the Pollsmoor Admission Centre where, as atMalmesbury, children were said to be awaiting placementelsewhere, the children are sometimes allowed toexercise for about 45 minutes after breakfast. If wardersare not available to assist, the juveniles are kept lockedup in their cells and may only leave them at mealtimes.No programmes are available for the children.At Odi, the authorities said that the sentenced juvenilescan attend classes, participate in programmes, playsport and participate in arts and crafts. Juveniles wereno longer allowed to sing in»the choir because it wouldenable them to associate with adult prisoners. Thejuveniles spoken to said they had not attended andwere not aware of any programmes.Such discrepancies were common. The authoritiesand the children frequently gave conflicting versionsduring the research project.