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South Africa has two fully privatised prisons, each housing some 3,000 prisoners. Their history has been mired in controversy from the start, and this has not improved over a period of nearly 25 years. Recent events affecting the security and integrity of the two facilities provide a useful opportunity to reflect on these private prisons as well as wider issues regarding private sector involvement in the prison system. The intersection of politics, organised labour, private sector interests, and corruption have in all likelihood rung the death knell for private prisons in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the paper was to conduct a legal-realist assessment of the South African prison system response to COVID-19. Severely congested and ill-resourced prison systems in Africa face unprecedented challenges amplified by COVID-19. South Africa has recorded the highest COVID-19 positivity rate in Africa and, on March 15th 2020, declared a national state of disaster. The first prison system case was notified on April 6th 2020. Design/methodology/approach: A legal-realist assessment of the South African prison system response to COVID-19 in the 12 months following initial case notification focused on the minimum State obligations to comply with human rights norms, and the extent to which human, health and occupational health rights of prisoners and staff were upheld during disaster measures. Findings: A legal-realist account was developed, which revealed the indeterminate nature of application of South African COVID-19 government directives, ill-resourced COVID-19 mitigation measures, alarming occupational health and prison conditions and inadequate standards of health care in prisons when evaluated against the rule of law during State declaration of disaster. Originality/value: This legal-realist assessment is original by virtue of its unique evaluation of the South African prison system approach to tackling COVID-19. It acknowledged State efforts, policymaking processes and outcomes and how these operated within the prison system itself. By moving beyond the deleterious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the already precarious South African prison system, the authors argue for rights assurance for those who live and work in its prisons, improved infrastructure and greater substantive equality of all deprived of their liberty in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The global spotlight is increasingly shone on the situation of women in the male-dominated prison environment. Africa has observed a 24% increase in its female prison population in the past decade. This year is the 10-year anniversary of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) adopted by the General Assembly on 21 December 2010. Design/methodology/approach: Using a legal realist approach, this paper examines South Africa's progress in adopting the Bangkok Rules. This paper documents the historical evolution of the penal system since colonial times, focused on the development of recognition, protection and promotion of human rights of prisoners and an assessment of incarcerated women's situation over time. Findings: The analysis of the human rights treaties, the non-binding international and regional human rights instruments, African court and domestic jurisprudence and extant academic and policy-based literature is cognizant of the evolutionary nature of racial socio-political dimensions in South Africa, and the indeterminate nature of application of historical/existing domestic laws, policies and standards of care when evaluated against the rule of law. Originality/value: To date, there has been no legal realist assessment of the situation of women in South Africa's prisons. This paper incorporates race and gendered intersectionality and move beyond hetero-normative ideologies of incarcerated women and the prohibition of discrimination in South African rights assurance. The authors acknowledge State policy-making processes, and they argue for substantive equality of all women deprived of their liberty in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colonialism has had an influence on many sectors across the board in South Africa, including the prison system. Its impact could be seen in the way prisoners were treated during the post-colonial and apartheid eras. This paper seeks to demonstrate the relationship between colonial, post-colonial, and apartheid penological practices by examining the treatment of prisoners during these periods. The examination of this relationship may be useful to understand what really informed the promulgation of racist policies during the post-colonial and apartheid periods. This paper contends that the legislation that was promulgated during the post-colonial and apartheid periods, which comprised legislative instruments on how prisoners were treated, was in fact a formalisation and continuation of what had already been practised during the colonial era. The following themes are central to this discourse: the colonial period between the 1840s and 1909, the post-colonial period between 1910 and 1948, and the National Party (apartheid) era between 1948 and 1993. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on prison rape issues in countries such as the U.S and South Africa. It discusses the comparison of prison rape issued faced by these two countries, issues of prison system management in these countries, and a report of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics on the number of people incarcerated in the U.S in 2012. It argues on the consideration of prison rape as torture under international law and violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Dostoevsky, Mandela, and others have long noted that prisons expose social realities, often hidden, particularly inequality and gaps between policy and practice. Prisons symbolize, mirror, and shape the communities and countries in which they exist. Although prisons informed and were intertwined with many of the defining moments of 1989, in the 20 years since, societies often failed to recognize the important role prison and punishment play in relationship to democracy. By not recognizing that “prison matters” in relationship to democracy, polities (whether in transition to democracy or established democracies) failed to adequately learn “prison lessons.” Starting with a case study of South Africa, this paper considers prisons during apartheid and under democratic governance. This case is connected to other comparative and international examples (including Russia, Brazil, and the USA) to identify five lessons learned and not learned concerning prison and democracy. First, policies and practices of imprisonment reflect social orders, especially structures of inequality and understandings of legitimate power and opposition. Second, countries transitioning to democracy seldom anticipate rising crime and invariably neglect the relevance of prisons. Third, nations do not adequately grapple with the role of prison in the past, especially the nondemocratic past. Fourth, in established and recent democracies, penal populism resulted as politicians defined prison as a solution to a host of social ills, ignoring the consequences of expanded punishment. Fifth, prisons shaped key substantive realities beyond their walls, from leadership to recidivism, scandals, fiscal deficits, and crises of legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Jews of Breakwater Convict Station in Cape Town, South Africa. It states that the Jewish exodus from Eastern Europe and the discovery of diamonds and minerals in South Africa during the later half of the 19th century led to the influx of Jews to the Cape. The association between the evolution of the prison system and the demands of the capitalist labour market is discussed. An extract which reveals that the Jewish community of the Cape did not see the criminals of Breakwater as outsiders to their community is presented.

The article discusses a study on the situation of imprisoned mothers in South African prisons and their contact with family members outside the institution. A historical perspective of the South African prison system, the legal basis for imprisoning women, and the condition of the prison facilities for women in South Africa are looked into. It also discusses the methodology used in the research project, which is data collection from the written questionnaires accomplished by selected imprisoned mothers and accompanied by structured interviews. The result of the research project and its significance to the female prison population of minorities are also presented.

Responding to British complaints in 1987 of excessive focus on human rights violations in South Africa, four professional associations launched a massive survey of human rights throughout the Commonwealth. Dismayed by inadequacies in the Harare Declaration, the CHRI became a formal non-governmental institution and published a searching study of rights violations in different contexts ahead of each Commonwealth summit. Its headquarters rotated in 1993 to Delhi from where a worldwide program to increase freedom of information and press for reform of police and prison systems, as the basis for securing other human rights, has made impressive headway. The article also describes its impact on the Commonwealth Secretariat's work and its involvement with the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]