Behind prison walls: Is our justice system making South Africa less safe?

Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services, Judge Edwin Cameron, has written a book titled 'Behind Prison Walls: Unlocking a Safer South Africa' - along with Rebecca Gore and Sohela Surajpal. He joins John Maytham (in for CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit).

Listen below:

In an ideal world, prisons would be places where criminals are rehabilitated in order to assimilate back into society when they are released.

The reality, however, is that many become more hardened once they’re put behind bars.

Our prisons are overcrowded and dominated by gangs... and harsher sentences seldom help.

Cameron and his co-authors visited numerous correctional facilities to see how the system is failing society (and inmates), and have tried to come up with some possible ways to remedy the shortcomings.

Their suggestions? Abolishing minimum sentences, cash bail, and decriminalising drug use to improve safety and justice.

Cameron admits it's a hard sell to a wary public.

"I respect the public's anger about the risk, we are all at risk of violent crime... so all of us have good reason to feel angry and to want people to go to jail."

- Judge Edwin Cameron, Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services

Cameron argues that when Jacob Zuma came into power in 2009, he 'systematically set about destroying' the instruments of justice and the pursuit of justice.

He lists crime intelligence, the South African Police Service, and the NPA as having fallen victim to Zuma's influence.

"We say let's go back to doing what's effective, let's rebuild those organisations."

- Judge Edwin Cameron, Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services

"Let's rethink the minimum sentences and the life sentences that we've been doling out to a smaller and smaller portion of a bigger and bigger violent crime problem."

- Judge Edwin Cameron, Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services

Scroll up to the audio player to hear the full conversation.