South African prisons overcrowded by violent criminals - minister

May 18, 2007, 10:11 GMT

Johannesburg - The number of violent crime offenders were frustrating attempts to ease overcrowding in prisons, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Friday.

Speaking during his department's budget vote debate in the National Assembly, Balfour said the surge in violent crimes posed a serious threat to initiatives intended to reduce overcrowding in prisons.

'The current overall positive trend in the reduction of overcrowding is facing a significant threat over the next few years,' he was quoted by the South African news agency Sapa as saying.

'A changing profile of offender- and awaiting-trial inmate population, who are increasingly incarcerated for aggressive and violent crimes, poses a real challenge as they occupy more bed spaces, more often and for longer periods,' he said.

Stiff sentences imposed on violent offenders, Balfour said, have a direct impact on the work being done to reduce prison population.

Hundreds of prisoners have already benefited from the department's sentence remission programmes intended to reduce prison population.

Balfour said the initiatives had contributed to a steady decrease in prison overcrowding.

'Over the past six years we have consistently reduced overcrowding by 4.77 per cent per year,' he said, adding that there has been a 15 per cent decrease in the previous year.