Pollsmoor Remand has been operating at more than 200% capacity for longer than a decade, and the conditions have been described by Justice Edwin Cameron as ‘horrendous’.
• 65-80 detainees are forced to share cells built to accommodate 25-30 people. This means that detainees are sharing beds or sleeping on the floor. One detainee reported that ‘you cannot walk around without bumping into people’.
• Cells only have one toilet and one shower shared by everyone.
• Detainees report that cells are so poorly ventilated that the air is too thick to breathe.
• Detainees have no access to reading materials and spend up to 23 hours a day locked in their cells.
(Source: Justice Cameron Report)