Chairperson, the reports highlight our observations about the Department of Correctional Services' detention facilities in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Northern Cape.
Most of the observations in these reports are similar, with the exception of Ncome. The committee is concerned about the state of management at the Ncome facility. The committee is concerned because, in our own view, the management is close to collapse. Senior managers and managers at the coalface do not speak to each other, to the extent that managers at the coalface are accused of colluding with inmates. That, in our view, is a security risk.
In the other areas the normal concerns of management are conditions of employment and the lack of a clear promotions policy. Also, the fact that the ratio of staff to inmates is as high as 1 official to 300 inmates creates problems in itself as far as security as well as the rehabilitation of inmates are concerned. That is true for all the areas that we visited.
In terms of remand detention, we have a situation where inmates are incarcerated because they cannot afford bail of as little as R500. The problem in that case is that it costs the state anything between R6 000 and R8 000 per month per inmate. Yet, we find it fit to incarcerate that inmate, because he cannot afford bail of R500. That doesn't make sense economically. Therefore, we are recommending that the department, through the Minister, looks at the matter again. We are talking about the fact that you find this problem across the board.
We also have the perennial problem of remand detainees being incarcerated for seven years. In the areas that we visited, we saw remand detention periods of anything between two and three years. Again, we are saying to the department that, in many instances, close to 30% of those remand detainees are never found guilty and therefore, from a cost point of view, their detention is essentially unjustifiable detention. We ask for that to be looked into.
The final area that we were concerned about was the general state of security in these facilities. At none of the facilities that we visited were the access controls in operation. Many of them were dysfunctional, to the extent that the turnstiles were secured by handcuffs. We have asked that that be looked into. We are concerned with the amount of illegal cell phones and drugs that we find in these facilities. Clearly, the number of cell phones that we find in our facilities points to collusion between inmates and officials. These cell phones are used to conduct business outside of the facilities by those that have been incarcerated. We have asked that that matter be looked into. As I have indicated, these issues apply uniformly across all the facilities that we visited.
We thought that those were some of the more important areas that we wanted to bring to the attention of the House. Having said that, we humbly present this report to the House for adoption. I thank you.
There was no debate.
Hon Chairperson, I move: That the reports be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report on Oversight Visit to Johannesburg Correctional Centre to assess Remand Detention Facilities and Services accordingly adopted.
Report on Oversight Visits to Correctional Centres in Gauteng, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces accordingly adopted.