In 2012 hebben we als stichting Hope Works geïnitieerd in Pollsmoor Prison. Na een geslaagde pilot van dit jobskill programma hebben we toch de keuze gemaakt dit niet verder te sponsoren omdat onze beide partners (Hope Prison Ministry en Network) in staat zouden moeten worden geacht het programma zelfstandig te laten draaien binnen de muren van Pollsmoor. Helaas heeft the Common Good Foundation (eigenaar van Network) destijds besloten om zich uitsluitend te blijven richten op hun werk onder vluchtelingen en zodoende is erg geen vervolg gegeven aan de pilots.
Inmiddels is The Common Good Foundation bezig om te kijken om het programma door te ontwikkelen en ook elders aan te gaan bieden. Wij zijn gevraagd om hier op afstand over mee te denken en dat doen we graag. Hopelijk kan het programma dan ook uiteindelijk weer in wat voor vorm ook aangeboden worden aan de gevangenen die voor hun vrijlating zitten. Zodat ze een steuntje in de rug krijgen om hun leven nieuw in te kunnen richten.
Restorative Justice
Hope Prison Ministry heeft in de afgelopen maanden zowel in Goodwood prison (noord/oost Kaapstad) als in Voorberg prison (150 km. ten noorden van Kaapstad) het Restorative Justice programma aangeboden.
Het onderstaande verhaal stamt uit 2005, maar het zou ook 2014 kunnen zijn. Het toont hoe schrijnend de situatie in de gevangenissen in Zuid Afrika kan zijn en hoe nodig het is dat het system, maar vooral de gevangene zelf verandert. We zijn trots op Hope Prison ministry, dat ze in deze omstandigheden iets van de liefde van Jezus Christus willen laten zien en zijn als stichting blij, dat we ze ook dit jaar financieel hierin kunnen ondersteunen.
‘How CT prison gang raped me’
2005-09-28 18:08
Cape Town – A Western Cape prisoner has described in an affidavit lodged in the Cape High Court how he was suffocated with a wet towel, while he was being raped and beaten by a prison gang.
The testimony of the prisoner, a former property developer, was a key element in an urgent application to force the government to improve conditions in South Africa’s heavily overcrowded jails.
The application, which was to have been heard on Wednesday, but was instead postponed by consent to October 13, was being brought by the prisoner, who had asked that his identity not be revealed for fear of reprisals, and the Prison Care and Support Network (PCSN), an NGO under the auspices of the Catholic Church.
Constitutional right to dignity
They were asking the court to rule that prison overcrowding was unlawful and a violation of the constitutional right to dignity and the right not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way.
In his affidavit, the 37-year-old prisoner said that after being sentenced for cheque fraud and escaping, he was held in Cape Town’s Goodwood prison, in a communal cell dominated by members of the 26s and 28s gangs.
The cell was meant to hold 20 inmates, but as many as 30 at a time were packed in.
He said he was often approached by gang members to join or perform tasks for them, and was threatened when he refused.
Warders threaten inmates with the 28s
He said: “The 28s were powerful and even the warders would often threaten inmates with the suggestion that if they should step out of line they would be placed in cells with the 28 gang to be raped.”
Tensions between him and the gangsters increased after a disagreement about television channels in the cell, but prison staff refused his request for transfer to a single cell.
“On Thursday August 28 2004, I went to the toilet early in the morning about 2:30. While I was sitting on the toilet, I noticed that a member of the 28s came into the toilet briefly and then left.
“He was a gang member who had previously threatened me and I had already made complaints to the warders about him.”
Raped inmate couldn’t defend himself
He added: “Shortly afterwards, a group of 28s came into the toilet. Before I had the time to stand up from the toilet, a wet towel was wrapped around my head and I was pulled off the toilet with my pants still around my knees.
“I could not see or breathe properly because of the towel, and I fell onto the floor. I was then repeatedly kicked and beaten on the toilet floor. I could not defend myself and I tried desperately to breathe through the towel.
“I then felt something being pushed into my rectum. I was in extreme pain and struggled to breathe. During the attack, I lost consciousness. I was found the next morning on the floor of the toilet. I was in extreme pain all over my body.”
He was taken to the rape centre at Karl Bremer Hospital, and later received medication to prevent the development of Aids, for which he had so far tested negative.
SAPA
Een erkenning kreeg Hope Prison Ministry dit jaar doordat Jonathan en Jenny Clayton voor de tweede keer uitgenodigd zijn door de overheid van de Seychellen om het Restorative Justice programma in de gevangenissen daar te introduceren.
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