The Judicial Inspector of Correctional Services, Judge Edwin Cameron, writes that in recent months, with colleagues from the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS), he visited prisons in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Vryheid and Newcastle.

In each, there was disturbing evidence of dilapidation. Leaks, floods, broken windows, unrepaired electric installations, stinking ablutions, were found. He says this is an increasing problem for the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and much of it can be traced to the often-dysfunctional Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), which is responsible for most prison repairs. The walls, ceilings, roofs, electrical and water reticulation, hot-water systems and perimeter fences of too many correctional centres are in a grave state of unattended disrepair. Cameron says that none of these conditions should be laid at the door of the DCS personnel as they are as alarmed as JICS is by the grim state of infrastructure. They are desperate for relief. One head of centre indicated that they submitted a monthly list of unattended defects to both the prisons department and to DPWI. “We were given a reference number. Nothing has been done,” he lamented. At DPWI, a string of acting, disciplined and fired heads, combined with political instability resulting from Cabinet appointments, have hobbled its functionality. Cameron says that DPWI should appoint a top-level national official to deal specifically with prisons, and to impel the departmental workforce to do the necessary work.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Judge Edwin Cameron at GroundUp

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