Children in Prison in South Africa - Community Law Centre

"Someone tried to influence me to join the gangs.There are a lot of gangs here. I am afraid of them.More than I was in Johannesburg."In certain instances, warders expressed their concernabout gang activities.At Odi, the warder in charge of the juveniles said he hadtried to deal with the problem by bringing the leadersof the 28s and 29s to a meeting, after which a trucewas declared and knives and weapons handed over.He did not, however, believe that the peace would last.At the Malmesbury prison, the boys pointed out howtrapped they felt about reporting offences. They saidthey were told to point out suspected offendersamongst the prisoners. If they did so, they said, theywere intimidated by the inmates. If they did not, theentire group would be punished.In certain instances, children were prepared to reporton gang activities. At Pretoria Local, one boy said hehad been held in a cell with older boys (up to the ageof 27) and had been abused, beaten and forced tojoin a gang. At Brandvlei, several of the children interviewedsaid they did not want to belong to gangs.One said this was because "it is not worthwhile allthe trouble you get". Another felt it would affect hischances of parole.At Pollsmoor, an attempt is to keep the 'difficult'juveniles away from the rest. The juveniles arehoused in two cells - one for those who cooperateand attend school and another for the so-called'difficult' juveniles. This is also a punishment cell.At North-End in Port Elizabeth, the prison authoritiesreported that in 1992 they decided to allocate cells toprisoners according to their gang membership. Theywould ask each prisoner whether they belonged to agang and, if so, which gang. Gang members wouldbe put in the cell allocated for the gang to which theybelonged. Those who did not belong to a gangwould be put in a neutral cell. Should a prisoner fallout with his gang and wish to be moved, he has tomake the request in writing.In the St Albans,sentenced section, on the otherhand, the authorities do not allocate prisoners tocells according to gang affiliation. This they said is toprevent juvenile gang members from acquiring toomuch authority over non-gang members. They alsoreported that, if gangs are put together, they becomemore powerful, and it becomes more difficult for theauthorities to deal with them. At this prison, theauthorities said there is an intercom in each cell.However, in the very first cell visited, the intercomwas not working. During another visit, some sixmonths later, all the intercoms in the cells visitedwere reported to be out of order.it was reported that, at this prison, juveniles oftenintimidate each other during exercise time. Generallynon-gang members are intimidated by gang memberswho force them to wash their clothes.In some prisons, younger children are kept separatefrom older children to minimise bullying. However, thesystem of locking up all the children and juveniles(often-together) from early to mid-afternoon until thefollowing morning obviously provides an environmentin which violence flourishes. The. fact that there is .often no more than one warder on duty during thelong night shift means that he himself is under threatand unlikely to open the cells in the case of an outbreakof violence.(n contrast, facilities for female juveniles seldomreported on gang activities. The girl prisoners saidthere were no gangs at the Westville Female Prison.The authorities at North-End (who spoke openlyabout gangs in the male section of the prison) saidthere was no gangsterism in the women's section. .However, in the Johannesburg prison, the girls in theawaiting trial section referred to gang activity, notablythe 'amachina' gang. Fights amongst the gangs andthé unaffiliated women were prevalent, and one childhad sustained a black eye as a result of an assaultby a fellow inmate.