Prison journalism: The reality of Pollsmoor Correctional Centre

Never would I have thought that I would ever find myself serving a prison sentence, seeing that just a year before, I just got back from being abroad, three years in Dubai and a few years in France. It just goes to show that prison is not for anyone but everyone.

What follows is my experience at Pollsmoor correctional facility, aka the most notorious prison in Southern Africa, before being sent on a draft after two years into serving my four-year sentence.

Life in Pollsmoor Prison

I find it amazing how I actually made it through my sentence firstly being placed in a cage that’s actually meant for 60 inmates and having it filled up beyond the brim with 120 in a cell with inmates sleeping on the floor and even under the beds.

Everyone in the cells would find themselves exposed to various kinds and types of infections such as skin rashes, boils, and some even caught rat fever, and some inmates even died because of the inhuman conditions.

I actually felt bad for the prison wardens because they were clearly understaffed to be able to handle the amount of inmates incarcerated and thus this contributed to the high level of gang activities taking place in the prison thus the increase of new members being into the gangs and so many falling prey to returning to prison.

The positives are the programs like restorative justice that actually helped do a lot of real introspection of life and helped me meet other like-minded inmates with the same desire of making changes to our lives’ inside and outside of the prison system which was not easy with the amount violent crime’s occurring on a daily basis. 

Sporting programs helped a lot when it came to getting rid of the oppressed anger I had inside due to being locked up most of the time as it was not really a regular thing of having excuse outside because of the amount of violent activities taking place most of the time in different parts of the prison.

Don’t get me wrong though, about the gangsters, though some of them where actually good guys that actually gave good life advice when it come to me handling some personal issues I was handling.

I found it really strange how I found myself becoming more God-conscious when I was incarcerated. To tell the truth, my opinion on the system is there need to be more programs in the prison system if there is to be positive development when it comes to inmates and an increase of wardens with a counselling system set up for them because of all the violent activities they encounter as they have a large role to play as well when it comes to the rehabilitation of inmates.

Should you wish to assist in the rehabilitation of former inmates and help put money into the pockets of those who have struggled to earn a living during and after incarceration, click HERE 

This project in collaboration with RESTORE currently works with formerly incarcerated young men in the communities.

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