The Department of Correction Services (DCS) is still searching for a long-term solution to deal with overcrowding in prisons.
During a parliamentary question-and-answer session this week, DCS Minister Pieter Groenewald provided an update on which options were gaining the most traction.
Prison overcrowding nationally sits at 58%, with roughly 169 000 inmates occupying spaces meant to hold 107 000 beds.
R28 million daily for detainees
The prison population had grown by roughly 12 000 inmates in the last 12 years, but the number of sentenced offenders has dropped.
According to DCS figures, sentenced offenders numbered 113 659 in April 2014, while this week the department said the number stood at 106 280.
The number of remand detainees is the figure that concerns DCS, with the number of inmates awaiting trail currently at roughly 62 000, as opposed to 43 000 in 2014.
Groenewald reiterated that remand detainees cost R463 per day to house, meaning those awaiting trial cost an estimated R28.7 million per day.
The minister added that at least 3 300 of these detainees could not afford bail of R1 000, stressing the need for alternatives for both those under remand and sentenced offenders.
“There are ways to do this, but I’m strongly in support of community service that should be part of sentencing in our courts,” he said.
“Probation is one option, and we are also in the process of using electronic bracelets to ensure that probationers can move along safely while protecting the community, stated Groenewald.
Murder rate increases
Electronic bracelets have been proposed for over 10 years, but have hit several stumbling blocks along the way.
A 2014 plan to electronically tag 10 000 offenders was scrapped due to insufficient budget allocations, despite showing a 45% per prisoner saving.
At the time, the daily cost to house an inmate was R350, with the DCS stating that electronic braclets amounted to R190 per day.
“Although the tagging of offenders did not physically restrain them from committing a crime, the electronic monitoring control room identifies and manages alerts and violations,” DCS stated in 2015.
Murder rates have since increased, with police recording 17 805 murders between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015 – 48 per day.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia last week stated that 5 181 cases of murder had been reported in January and March this year, an average of 57 per day.
