August 1, 2009
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ICD probes holding cell rape
26/08/2008 21:41 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Independent Complaints Directorate is
investigating a case in which a woman was raped after police officials
placed her in a holding cell occupied by four men. The woman, 19, was detained at the Transvaal Road police station in Kimberley at 03:00 on Sunday for drunkenness.
"According to the victim, the officers who picked her up accused
her of being a tomboy," the ICD said in a statement on Tuesday. She was detained in the same holding cell as four men who then
repeatedly raped her. She informed a police officer who was doing
routine cell visits at 06:00 that she was being raped. The officer helped her to open a case and to get medical treatment, the directorate said.
"Our main concern will be to establish how this (being put in the same cell with men) came about."
"(We) also aim to establish if the SAPS Standing Orders were
contravened or adhered to in terms of the cell visits that are supposed
to take place every hour, or every thirty minutes if a person is
detained for drunkenness." ICD investigations were continuing.
- SAPA
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Posted by Memory Grace.
July 30, 2009
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Just Detention International
to Testify at House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing
Washington,
DC, July 7, 2009. The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) has stimulated
significant advances in the effort to end sexual violence in detention,
particularly with the recent release of binding national standards addressing
this type of abuse. Despite such progress, however, further action is needed to
ensure inmate safety.
At a hearing tomorrow, July 8, before the Ho... | Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
July 30, 2009
Survivors Vindicated After 13
Year Legal Struggle in Michigan
Dear Friends,
Just Detention
International (JDI) applauds the decision by the Michigan Department of
Corrections to settle a class action lawsuit brought by more than 500 female
prisoners who were sexually assaulted in Michigan prisons. The case has been
going on for more than 10 years -- with the state previously refusing to take
responsibility for the rampant abuse in its facilities, even after los...
Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
January 28, 2009
Johannesburg - Overcrowding was one of the worst problems faced by prison authorities in Gauteng, according to provincial commissioner Zacharia Modise who testified before the Jali commission on Wednesday.
Modise told the commission, which began the first day of its public hearings on Wednesday as part of its investigation into corruption at prisons countrywide, that Gauteng prisons were severely overcrowded.
"We have the capacity to accommodate 25 242 prisoners, but the unlock as of Mo... | Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
January 28, 2009
20/03/2003 22:59 - (SA)
Cape Town - Their evening meal is served at 14:00. If they are sick, they are given a Panado - no matter what the illness. Their visitors may spend three minutes with them.
This is a glimpse at the lives of some inmates in South African prisons as outlined in the Law Society of South Africa's latest report on conditions in the country's prisons.
The report was handed to minister of correctional services Ben Skosana on Thursday.
Seventy lawyers visited prisons acr... | Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
January 28, 2009
23/05/2003 12:42 - (SA)
Cape Town - The threat of long prison sentences is not necessarily a deterrent for people thinking about committing a crime.
This is according to South Africa's inspecting judge of prisons, Judge Johannes Fagan, who says longer sentences are resulting in more overcrowded prisons and less scope for rehabilitation.
"It is the certainty of apprehension and punishment, rather than the severity of the sentence, that is the real deterrent," he states in his inspectorat... | Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
January 28, 2009
22/06/2004 08:04 - (SA) Cape Town - Prison terms in South Africa are increasingly becoming longer, probably because trespassers are becoming more violent or because there are more serial perpetrators than before. According to the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), these are some of the reasons why the country's prisons are so full. Offenders serving sentences of more than 20 years have increased from 1 885 in 1995 to 7 885, which constitutes an increase of 76%. Offenders serving sentences o... Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
January 28, 2009
19/03/2003 21:13 - (SA) Cape Town - A total of 1 443 prisoners died in South Africa's jails last year, Correctional Services minister Ben Skosana said on Wednesday. In a written reply to a parliamentary question, he said 1389 of these had been "natural deaths", and 54 prisoners had "died as a result of unnatural deaths". Replying to a separate question, he said there had been four cases of sodomy and one of rape reported to the authorities in South African prisons during the same period. Continue reading...
Posted by Memory Grace.
January 27, 2009
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Cell rape hell before wedding
09/03/2008 20:22 - (SA)
Willem Pelser, Rapport
Polokwane - It's the greatest fear of every law-abiding citizen: you land in a police cell without good re... | |
