Prison warders working at the East London Maximum Correctional Centre in West Bank are concerned that a new shift, combined with a staff shortage, is putting their lives and inmates at risk.
Warders who spoke to DispatchLIVE said the shift, which starts at 9.30am, was making their lives a daily nightmare as they had to travel across the province escorting inmates to be sentenced for serious crimes, ranging from first-degree murder to rape.
Additionally, they said the facility was short-staffed and the inmate-to-correctional officer ratio compromised.
Under normal circumstances, one inmate is supposed to be accompanied by two warders when they travel outside the correctional centre, but at the moment five prisoners are escorted by the same number of warders to public spaces such as hospitals and courts.
In developed countries like the US, the inmate-to-correctional officer ratio is four warders to one inmate.
A warder said they were working with inmates who were facing 10 years or more and having fewer warders on escort duty made him feel unsafe.
He said the new shift made matters even worse.
“When we escort inmates to a public hospital or to courts, or any other outside place, for that matter, there is supposed to be two officials escorting one inmate.
“In terms of the ratio we are not complying with that regulation,” the warder said.
“Recently we transported five inmates to hospital and we were five warders, and that is wrong because these guys are high-risk-prisoners according to their classification and this [situation] is because we are short-staffed.
“Members don’t feel secured when they are travelling outside with inmates. Anything can happen.”
Another warder said due to the Covid-19 pandemic, hospitals demanded that inmates seeking medical attention arrived before 10am, on the basis that healthcare workers were also occupied with assisting Covid-19 positive patients.
“Starting work at 9am makes it impossible to get the inmates to the hospitals on time.
“These are inmates who are ill with chronic illnesses like diabetes; some are HIV-positive and they have been referred by the prison doctor to seek further medical assistance at public hospitals like Frere, where they arrive late and don’t get help.”
He said previously all the prison staff, including professionals working in the prison, such as teachers, started work at 7am and their daily duties were not affected.
“This new shift is messing things up because, for instance, we sometimes have to drive an inmate to the Mthatha court at 9.30am, meaning you drive like a madman because you are trying cover over the time.
“And at that time you are not complying with the inmate-to-prisoner ratio and that puts our lives in danger, because an inmate can do anything.
“On Wednesday, more than three inmates got turned away from the hospital because they were late.
“And Popcru [the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union] is aware of this but nothing is being done — no-one is addressing this situation from Popcru or management,” he said.
Popcru national spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said: “Such allegations of the current conditions are true and have been a lived reality for most members.”
He confirmed the union was aware of the situation and it continued to raise such challenges with the department in all provinces due to the frequency with which they occurred.
“It is a matter which we tabled during our bilateral, but also within councils, as it has been quite clear the department needs to do more in playing its role towards rehabilitation.
“Under current conditions, the rehabilitation process is compromised,” Mamabolo said.
DispatchLIVE
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