At the start of this month, prison guards at Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria injured inmates sentenced to life who were protesting against the delays in their parole processes

The Wits Justice Project (WJP) has seen pictures of four prisoners with head wounds and large bruises on their limbs.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), who are representing inmates involved in the protest, claim that the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) placed nine prisoners in segregation, without observing rules and regulations around the segregation of inmates. The department neither reported this to the Inspecting Judge for Correctional Services, as is legally required, nor observed other rules around the segregation of inmates.

Clare Ballard, an attorney for LHR, wrote a letter to the Inspecting Judge for Correctional Services, Judge Johann Van der Westhuizen, alerting him to the assaults and the fact that the inmates hadn’t displayed any violence.

This story was first published by the Wits Justice Project, a Wits Journalism project.  Please click on the following link to read the full article: Lifers, Riots and Parole