Lack of maintenance and poor infrastructure, influx of contraband and non-compliance to policies and procedures by warders have been blamed as the reasons why more than 200 inmates have escaped from prisons across the country in the last five years.
This is according to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola when he was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Yoliswa Yako.
Yako wrote to Lamola enquiring about the number of prisoners who escaped from correctional facilities over the past five years.
She also asked about the conditions that made escape from jail possible for prisoners.
In his response, Lamola said a total of 256 prisoners escaped from lawful custody in the last five years.
His response showed that 256 escaped in 2018-19, 34 the following financial year, 117 escaped in 2020-21, one in 2021-22 and 10 in the financial year ending in March this year.
Lamola also said a total of 208 prisoners were re-arrested during the same period.
There were 44 prisoners that were re-arrested in 2018-19, 27 in 2019-20, 101 in 2020-21, 15 in 2021-22 and 21 in 2022-23.
He said some of the conditions that contributed to escapes from correctional facilities included lack of maintenance, and poor and outdated infrastructure.
The influx of contraband in correctional facilities was also contributing to the prisoners’ escape, he said, and non-compliance to policies and procedures by prison warders also played a role.
A total of 36 prisoners were still on the run since they escaped over the last four years.
In May, Lamola said some of the steps taken to strengthen security within prisons included monitoring of the gang-combating strategy and checklist, and protecting whistle-blowers or inmates who provided reliable information.
The searching of cells, bars, windows, inmates and officials, service providers and visitors was conducted daily and recorded on relevant registers.
Lamola added that measures to curtail incidents of escapes entailed continuous training of officials on identification and profiling of gangs, monitoring of the escape prevention plan, reducing overcrowding, and preventing idleness by subjecting prisoners to sports, recreational programmes, social and physiological services.
Cape Times