What our prisons say about us - new book unlocks truth about SA's prison system
It uncovers the colonial roots of South Africa’s prison system and calls for radical reform.
Photo: Pexels/RDNE Stock project
CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speaks to criminal justice analyst Rebecca Gore, one of the co-authors of Justice Edwin Cameron’s latest book, Behind Prison Walls.
Listen below:
Most South Africans will do everything possible to avoid setting foot inside the country's prisons, but a powerful new book is asking them to take a closer look.
Behind Prison Walls: Unlocking a Safer South Africa invites readers behind the bars of South Africa's correctional system, revealing the deep scars left by colonial and apartheid history.
Written by former Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron - along with Rebecca Gore and Sohela Surajpal - the book offers a glimpse into the realities of incarceration.
It argues that true justice in a South African context lies not in punishment, but in addressing the root causes of crime through widespread reform.
"It looks at how prisons, as an institution, were heavily relied on during colonial and apartheid times."
- Rebecca Gore, Criminal Justice Analyst
RELATED: SA prisons buckling under overcrowding crisis
Gore says the book also explores how our ideas and understanding of punishment during those times came to be.
"For instance, how prisons could be used to funnel cheap labour in the mines."
- Rebecca Gore, Criminal Justice Analyst
"And then we fast forward to today, and say, how have we - in real terms - reformed our approaches to punishment?"
- Rebecca Gore, Criminal Justice Analyst
The focus of reform today should be the certainty of accountability and punishment, not necessarily increased sentencing, says Gore.
Ultimately, says Gore, the book aims to bring readers, taxpayers, victims (and even perpetrators) into the country's prisons.
"We need to go back to the drawing board and say what will actually work in South Africa to deter crime and violence."
- Rebecca Gore, Criminal Justice Analyst
Find out more about the book 'Behind Prison Walls' by clicking the audio link above.