Following ConCourt ruling, SAPS continues to arrest people for possession of cannabis
The new ConCourt judgment legalising private use of cannabis should lead to a decrease in dagga arrests, but power still rests with the police. To date, cannabis arrests are one of the biggest SAPS arrest categories. Complete decriminalisation would free up R3.5-billion in police resources. This could be put to good use in combating the worrying 7 % increase in the murder rate, contained in the latest SAPS crime stats. On 18 September, the Constitutional Court ruled that the cultivation
G4S snared by torture allegations at Bloemfontein jail
Inmates say they were given electric shocks and forcibly injected at the multinational security company’s Mangaung Correctional Centre, writes Ruth Hopkins The multinational security company G4S, a main contender for the South African Social Security Agency tender to distribute social grants, is in court over torture allegations. The company is defending claims by 42 inmates that they were subjected to electric shocks, forcibly injected with antipsychotic drugs and placed in lengthy isolation in G4S’s Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein. The
Why government should focus more on keeping people out of prison
The question is why does the government not focus more on keeping people out of prison – a more cost-effective and humane solution? Bernard Mitchell is trying hard to stay out of prison. He served 20 years for an armed robbery and murder, and ended up in Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town where he joined the 26s, one of the feared number gangs that rule prison life in South Africa. The numbers are an extension of the various gangs that
Free State ANC tramples on justice
WJP’s Ruth Hopkins reveals how several cases involving party members point to the political silencing of their often poor opponents. The main hall on the campus of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein is called Equitas. Justice, in Latin. Outside, a towering silver statue of Lady Justice — scales in one hand, a sword in the other — gazes down on everyone who uses the steps. On May 29 last year, she must have frowned, or at least
‘It Was Him Or Me’: Women Who Killed Their Abusive Partners In Self-Defence
In South Africa, crime statistics for domestic violence, rape and femicide are through the roof. The crime rate for women as perpetrators, on the other hand, is very low. Only approximately 4000 women, a mere 2.6 % of the total prison population, are behind bars. Some of the women incarcerated in prisons throughout the country are serving lengthy prison sentences for killing their abusive, violent partners in self-defence. There is currently no accurate information* available on what percentage of the
I Was Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison When My Daughter Was 3 Days Old
Ruth Hopkins’s second piece in her four part series on women in prison. She spoke to women incarcerated in Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town and Johannesburg Correctional Centre about how they ended up in prison and how they survive behind bars. This is one of their stories. I met Uche in 2010 when I was 19 years old. He was a handsome tall Nigerian man. We started dating and I fell in love. He made me feel so good and wanted.