The overwhelming majority of the active Covid-19 cases in the department and across prisons countrywide at present, are of officials. Statistics released by the department on Tuesday evening, corroborate recent reports on the ground, that the rate of infection in prisons appears to have waned slightly, with a 77,06% recovery rate being reported. 

Overall the department has recorded 5509 positive Covid-19 cases, only 1189 of those cases are active. This is being deemed as a positive sign, not only for the prison population but for DCS as a whole. When zooming in on the overall Covid-19 figures at DCS, the margin between inmates and officials who have tested positive for the novel virus becomes slightly smaller. Officials constitute 66% of the overall cases, while inmates make up 34% of the overall cases. 

In May, President Cyril Ramaphosa formally authorised the release of 19 000 prisoners from the country’s overcrowded jails on parole, in an effort to contain contagion in prisons. 

In early July, Justice and Correctional Services Minister, Ronald Lamola revealed that very little progress had been made at that stage with regards to the release of the prisoners with less than a quarter of those in line for parole being released.

“On 11 May 2020, the department began with the process to release selected low-risk offenders and initial releases started from 20 May 2020, as at 24 June 2020 the total number offenders released was 4 138," explained Lamola. It was initially anticipated that the entire process would take a total of 10 weeks. More recently, OFM News’ Katleho Morapela reported 634 inmates in the Free State and Northern Cape had been released thus far, as a part of this batch. The latest figures pertaining to parole are yet to be confirmed.

Lamola’s answer to a question posed by DA Member of Parliament (MP), Werner Horn, on the Parliament Monitoring Group website, reveals that by 16 May, over 3600 prisoners had been placed in quarantine. The department has even brought in reinforcements to curb potential staff shortages during the pandemic, with non-centre based correctional officials being trained to assist at prisons as well as former officials. The department has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the South African Defence Force to augment the services rendered by the department.

OFM News