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G4S accused of holding South African prisoners in isolation illegally
Source: The Guardian
G4S accused of holding South African prisoners in isolation illegally
Ruth Hopkins in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 May 2013 18.26 BST
A South African prison run by the embattled British security firm G4S is illegally holding inmates in isolation for up to three years and denying them life-saving medication, according to a confidential South African government report.
The report lists 62 inmates who were detained in single cells for periods ranging from two weeks to three years, against prison rules. Two of them were not given essential TB and HIV medication during their solitary confinement, it says. A recent visit to the prison in Bloemfontein by the Wits Justice Project suggested that the practice was ongoing.
Inmate Ouba Mabalane told the project that he had been held in solitary confinement in Mangaung prison from 23 November 2006 to 7 November 2009, without access to television, radio or rehabilitation programmes. He was only allowed out his cell for one hour a day.
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In South Africa, the isolation of inmates is an unpleasant echo of the country's apartheid past, when political prisoners were regularly detained in single cells for years on end. The Pan Africanist Congress leader Robert Sobukwe, for example, was held in a solitary cell on Robben Island for nine years.
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Ruth Hopkins in Johannesburg
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 May 2013 18.26 BST
A South African prison run by the embattled British security firm G4S is illegally holding inmates in isolation for up to three years and denying them life-saving medication, according to a confidential South African government report.
The report lists 62 inmates who were detained in single cells for periods ranging from two weeks to three years, against prison rules. Two of them were not given essential TB and HIV medication during their solitary confinement, it says. A recent visit to the prison in Bloemfontein by the Wits Justice Project suggested that the practice was ongoing.
Inmate Ouba Mabalane told the project that he had been held in solitary confinement in Mangaung prison from 23 November 2006 to 7 November 2009, without access to television, radio or rehabilitation programmes. He was only allowed out his cell for one hour a day.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
In South Africa, the isolation of inmates is an unpleasant echo of the country's apartheid past, when political prisoners were regularly detained in single cells for years on end. The Pan Africanist Congress leader Robert Sobukwe, for example, was held in a solitary cell on Robben Island for nine years.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/28/g4s-south-african-prisoners-isolation