Overcrowding in South Africa’s prisons, administered by the Department of Correctional Services (DCS), is well-documented with plans in place to either extend existing ones and add new ones, a Parliamentary questioner was told.
DCS is the government department responsible for operating and managing the country’s 240 prisons which house 157 000 plus inmates.
Eleven new correctional centres (CCs) are on Minister Pieter Groenewald’s list to alleviate overcrowding he told Virgill Gericke, an EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament (MP) was told. They are Burgersdorp (500 beds), Kirkwood (500 beds), Parys (290 beds), Lichtenburg (500 beds), Thohoyandou (500 beds), Zeerust (500 beds), Nigel (1 500 beds), Leeuwkop (1 500 beds), George (500 beds), Voorberg (100 beds) and Richards Bay (1 000 beds).
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