This article identifies the historical reform patterns of the South African prison system, focusing on specific actors, social movements, and underlying socio-political factors that precipitated reform before the apartheid struggle and after 1994, transitioning into the current reform challenges facing the South African prison system.
Prison system, pre-apartheid Lasting colonial influence is ingrained in the South African prison system. The early stages of organized punishment in the country were brought forth by the arrival of European settlers, but imprisonment as punishment did not occur in Africa until the late 1800s. Prisons functioned to suppress and exploit populations that potentially might have posed a threat.Sarkin, 2008 The organization of a cohesive ordered prison system in South Africa took place earlier than other African countries, around the early 19th century. This was largely a result of an established economic interest resulting from the Atlantic slave trade and a concentration of African human capital afforded by organized imprisonment. In the early stages of prison development in South Africa, a culture of racial superiority was pervasive. While white prisoners received acceptable living conditions, fair treatment and vocational training in preparation for their release, black prisoners were perceived as "subhuman" and faced subjugation and scrutinisation for their supposed racial inadequacy.
The persistence of colonial influence and this cultural subjugation of racial inferiority through the South African prison system continued into the twentieth century. Until the 1940s, less reform and a greater emphasis on the organization and infrastructural development of South African prisons took place. This occurred amid growing interest in the ideological understanding of modernism and an increased international focus on the developmental potential of Africa. In a period of "rapid industrialization," the 1940s in South African was characterized by considerable urban migration,Gillespie, 2011 industrialization and technological development in an age of global war precipitated new transformations of ideological thought as well as new alignments and perceptions of social construction. In Germany, Jewish people and ethnic "others" were subdivided from the population and shipped to concentration camps across Eastern Europe. At the same time, racially-based conceptions of superiority also became widespread among colonial leaders in the African continent.
In South Africa, enduring colonialist concerns arose to comprise what was regarded as the "Native Question," which addressed how to manage Black Africans stereotyped by an image of "the wandering native". The "wandering native" became a caricature in justifying the South African threat of Black criminality. The perception was that an unemployed, unhoused Black African posed a serious threat to South African civil society, and liberal lawmakers devised a solution as to how best to punish him. Supported by the ideological savior-complex commonly known as the "White Man's Burden," prison systemization and reform would take shape in South Africa. Punishment as "an institution" became an outlet for white lawmakers to entrench a form of "social jurisdiction" as a presiding ideal for the modernization of society.
Prison consolidation, post-World War II To categorize the South African prison system following World War II, Natacha Filippi in "Deviance, Punishment, and Logics of Subjectification during Apartheid," explains that By 1948, the fabric of South African society remained systematically anchored by a discourse of racial discrimination. With South African prisons as the main institution to carry out punishment legitimized by racial superiority. Courts followed suit with "discriminatory verdicts and sentences". In the 1950s, a series of discriminatory laws were passed to enforce the systemization of apartheid. The indecencies that followed represent our current understanding of apartheid today. Apartheid was a regulated system of segregation legitimized by law. These laws emphasized the perceived dangerous nature of an urban black population. White lawmakers then restricted the freedoms of non-white populations. Targeted penal laws on alcoholism, drug dealing, and alleged impulses for violence led to a rise in arrests and incarcerations for Black South Africans.
As Black citizens were imprisoned in a subjective and racially-charged manner, the tense divisiveness of South African civil society became an epicenter for conflict and violence. During this period, Nelson Mandela began his twenty-seven-year prison sentence for unfounded allegations that he had conspired to overthrow the state. The country's external racial conflict intensified in the 1970s following the Township Insurrections, which led to the arrest of thousands under the Terrorism Act, 1967.
South African prisons during the apartheid era The apartheid prison system was primarily characterized by a "plethora of restraining laws," which increased the prison population, and sentencing of Black South Africans. In South Africa, cultural norms afforded the subjectivity of guilt to the assessment of whites. Black South Africans were adversely affected by this subjective enforcement of the law, and often spent extended years in prison for crimes they had not committed, but which white South Africans had condemned them for.
Within the prison, individuals were segregated based on race, gender, and conduct. It was along these lines that white and non-white prisoners were separated, and their meals, prison tasks, treatment, and punishment were contingent on their outward appearances. Underlying these lines was the sub-categorization of political, insane, and common-law prisoners. All non-white prisoners were considered unredeemable and requiring harsh punishment, while white prisoners were mostly perceived as being capable of institutional self-reform. During apartheid, prisons remained overcrowded and were disproportionately flooded with nonwhite prisoners. In Pollsmoor Prison in the Western Cape, an additional four new prison sectors were constructed to satisfy the overcrowding of inmates during the apartheid period. Political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela were kept separate and completely isolated from the outside world.
List of post-apartheid reforms +List of General Republic-Era ReformsAct NameYearRestitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 (Act No. 22 of 1994)1994Land Administration Act, 19951995Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 1995 (Act No. 34 of 1995)South African Citizenship Act, 1994 (Act No. 88 of 1995)South African Police Service Act, 1995 (Act No. 68 of 1995)Government Employees Pension Law, 19961996Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act, 1996Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act, 1996Higher Education Act, 1997 (Act No. 101 of 1997)1997Housing Act, 1997 (Act No. 107 of 1997)Identification Act, 1997 (Act No. 68 of 1997)Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act, 1998 (Act No. 95 of 1998)1998Employment Equity Act, 1998 (Act No. 55 of 1998)Further Education and Training Act, 1998 (Act No. 98 of 1998)Maintenance Act, 1998 (Act No. 99 of 1998)National Prosecuting Authority Act, 1998Prevention of Organised Crime Act, 1998 (Act No. 121 of 1998)Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000 (Act No. 4 of 2000)2000General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Act, 2001 (Act No. 58 of 2001)2001Media Development and Diversity Agency Act, 2002 (Act No. 14 of 2002)2002Further Education and Training Colleges Act, 2006 (Act No. 16 of 2006)2006Government Immovable Asset Management Act, 20072007Legal Aid South Africa Act, 2014 (Act No. 39 of 2014)2014 As a result of international outcry as well as the efforts from South African organizations such as the Black Sash, political prisoners and nonwhite prisoners gradually saw an equitable allocation of rights following the apartheid era in South Africa. The South African resistance movement gained traction and soon garnered a global following, and the end of apartheid culminated in a wave of transformative reform initiatives in 1994, which targeted the country's various structural inequalities. The unlawful imprisonment of Mandela brought increased scrutiny to the efficacy of the country's fundamental institutions of governance. Particular institutions administering justice and constitutional development, land affairs, education, health services, as well as housing and labor initiatives, were particularly restructured to establish equitable pathways for the Black South Africans who were re-entering a newly desegregated civil society. For South Africa's prison system, international diplomatic forces such as the United Nations and civil rights NGOs undertook particular reform efforts within the country.
Kampala Declaration The Kampala declaration was passed to safeguard human rights and invite third-party NGOs as enforcers of equal treatment (Sekhonyane, 2005). By establishing a legal charter of human rights recommendations to African prisoners, tangible reform was observed in South Africa as a result of the Kampala Declaration (Sekhonyane, 2005).
Ouagadougou Conference In 2002, the Ouagadougou Conference offered a follow-up analysis of prison reform progress that had been made following the Kampala Declaration (Sekhonyane, 2005). The conference followed with a declaration among African countries to reduce their prison populations and promote a universal African charter regarding prisoner's rights (Sekhonyane, 2005).
UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) In 2015, the United Nations adopted over the Mandela Rules, 120 rules that "represent, as a whole, the minimum conditions which are accepted as suitable" for the universal treatment of prisoners.
Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 Section 134 of the Correctional Services Act lists the twenty-one regulations sanctioned by South African prisons to provide for its population: +"CUSTODY OF ALL PRISONERS UNDER CONDlTlONS OF HUMAN DIGNITY"No.RegulationCondition No. 11Admission"The Head of Prison or any correctional official authorised by him or her must take into safekeeping the money, valuables and any other articles in the possession of a prisoner on admission to the prison or during the period of imprisonment…”2Accommodation"In every prison provision must be made for general sleeping and in-patient hospital accommodation, consisting of single or communal cells or both…”3Nutrition"Each prisoner must be provided with a diet consisting of a minimum protein and energy content of