This publication is a guide to the UN Convention against Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) for the South African context. The guide is furthermore aimed at civil society organisations ...

This article investigates the meaning and use of life imprisonment in South Africa in four major legal historical eras: life imprisonment at the time when the death penalty was still lawful in South Africa (including life ...

Prisoners are susceptible to a number of illness and diseases due, in part, to poor living conditions in prisons (e.g. overcrowding and poor nutrition), substance abuse and sexual violence (e.g. male rape). The rate of HIV ...

Since 1994 South Africa has faced many challenges but none so widely experienced as crime. The day-to-day perceptions of living in South Africa are characterised by crime, violence and uncertainty. The criminal justice ...

This study is concerned with the immediate post-release period and asked a very simple question: “What happens to people immediately after they have been released from prison?” The question is aimed at gaining a deeper and ...

The belief is thoroughly entrenched that prisons fulfil the triple function of punishing offenders, making society safer by removing dangerous individuals, and deterring potential offenders from committing crime. The fact ...

The so-called ‘temporary’ minimum sentencing legislation introduced into South African law in 1998 is still in place. The legislation was passed largely in response to high crime rates at the time and the perceived leniency ...

In the past 15 years the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has faced numerous challenges whilst trying to re‐invent itself. This has not been an easy road and in many regards the route to penetrative transformation ...

The Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention’s 2005 National Youth Victimisation Study indicated the need to explore existing policy impacting on children from a social crime prevention perspective within a rights-based ...

The point of departure of this paper is that, in general, corruption is a human rights issue, which is accentuated in the prison context given the nature of imprisonment. Three factors create an intrinsic risk for corruption ...