The government has strongly rejected perceptions that convicted criminals could be enjoying a life of luxury behind bars.
The perceptions are fueled by stories such as the Thabo Bester saga which saw correctional services officials allegedly actively serving him while in detention including helping him escape. Most recently an offender serving a life sentence overpowered and disarmed an officer before escaping from the Mamelodi Hospital where according to the official version he had been taken for an appointment with a dietician.
Various officials who spoke at the three day review of criminal procedure act in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni said the perceptions were far from the truth.
Correctional Services Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale said prisoners were being taken to public health institutions whenever necessary and that the escapes were isolated incidents.
Speaking to Newsnote on the sidelines of the conference Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffrey echoed Thobakgale’s comments saying offenders lose their freedom once convicted but maintained the rest of their rights in line with the constitution.
“It’s not a question of going soft on offenders. Its an issue of giving offenders basic human rights so the issue was raised, that they’re getting treatment at private facilities and that is not true you heard the Commissioner of correctional services responding that inmates get sent to state facilities,” he said.
He said the rights of victims need not be fulfilled at the expense offenders but admitted that more needed to be done for those that fall victim to crime.
” The issue has also come up around comparing the victims or their families, what happens, how offenders are treated and yes that’s an important issue too and it’s been a theme of the conference so it shouldn’t be either or, it is to me an issue that more should be done about the rights of victims,” said Jeffrey also dismissing perceptions that allowing offenders and accused persons rights led to increased crime.
Spokesperson for pressure group South African Prisoners Organisation for Human Rights Golden Miles Bhudu also concurred saying romanticised stories of incacarceration were simply untrue and that there’s no right thinking person who would not mind being jailed.
“Look I’ve been released from prison 34 years ago, I’ve spent 5 years in prison and its almost 40 years that I’ve been around here and I’m still my boots on, tightening my boots around my legs,” said the former prisoner.
Bhudu believes that perceptions that the rich and powerful could get away with anything as well as the legacy of apartheid contributed to an increase in crime.
“The fact is we’ve got a country which people who reads between the lines would tell that it is a mafia state, its a criminal state because the people who are responsible for having turned our hard earned democracy into what it is are the very same people who are the real criminals and nobody talks about that. They exploit, they make the money on the blood, tears,the backs and personal sacrifice of the majority of the people of this country and get away with it because the crimes that they commit you don’t see the blood but these crimes that they commit are even worse than violent crime,” he said.
The three day conference is aimed at reviewing the criminal procedure act which is the law on which the country’s justice system relied on to process violations, to be more responsive to the country’s stubbornly high crime rates.