After almost a decade of investigation, author Ruth Hopkins has exposed security company G4S for its brutal treatment of prisoners at Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein and the failure of the Department of Correctional Services to take appropriate action.
On Wednesday 3 September, G4S and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) were the focus of a Don\’t Shut Up Conversation between the author of The Misery Merchants: Life and Death in a privatised South African Prison, Ruth Hopkins, and activist and author Mark Heywood.
It all started in 2012 when Hopkins was working for the Wits Justice Project (WJP), an investigative journalism project at the University of the Witwatersrand. The WJP investigates miscarriages of justice in the South African criminal justice system such as wrongful convictions and torture in prisons.
Hopkins noticed that many letters were arriving at the WJP from Mangaung Correctional Centre – a state-of-the-art prison in Bloemfontein equipped with a well-stocked and advanced hospital. These letters varied in nature, from issues regarding a prisoner\’s legal process to healthcare issues. Nothing alarming, says Hopkins.
However, while investigating a claim of wrongful conviction (it turned out the man was in fact correctly convicted) at the prison, Hopkins decided to…
Source:allafrica.com
