Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is adamant that prisoners do not have the right to unfettered communication beyond prison walls, especially when they are coordinating crime from behind bars.

The Mayor was responding to the South African Prisoner Organisation for Human Rights’ opposition to the City’s calls for signal-blocking and communication interception strategies to be piloted at Pollsmoor prison.

Hill-Lewis says prisoners do not have the right to communicate freely beyond the prison walls.

“We have real examples of the police and prosecutors doing good work to get gangsters put away, only for them to continue to run their criminal gangs from inside prison. That makes a mockery of the criminal justice system. To suggest that these prisoners have an entrenched right to do as they please while behind bars is simply ludicrous.”

The Mayor argues that while inmates should be able to communicate with family and legal representatives using the prison’s fixed-line telephones, these calls are often monitored to ensure no crime is being committed.

He says they are aware that underworld figures inside Pollsmoor are pulling strings on the outside, including extortion threats and disruptions of City infrastructure projects.

A contractor in Bishop Lavis recently informed Hill-Lewis that he left the site of a roads project due to extortion threats made by a phone call from an inmate in Pollsmoor.

“That is why a concerted effort is needed to block these communications from causing harm to communities. That includes raids to remove illicit cellphones, technology to pinpoint illegal cellphone use and intercept communications, and yes, where necessary, signal-blocking if that’s what it takes to protect residents on the outside from criminal threats. Inmates must know if they try to coordinate crime, they will be caught and prosecuted with ease, thanks to the correct technology being in place.”

The Mayor wrote to Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald this month to call for the piloting of signal-blocking and other measures at Pollsmoor.

Hill-Lewis says the City is further offering support, including intelligence-sharing to identify patterns of criminal activity emanating from Pollsmoor, technical and logistical support to install signal-blocking technology and raising public awareness to support these efforts.

The mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, echoed the Mayor’s concerns.

“Besides dealing with the use of cellphones, we further urge the Department of Correctional Facilities to consider lifestyle audits of wardens and staff. Information provided to the City illustrates that corruption and extortion are rife, allowing criminal elements to continue their crimes unabated. The reality is that prohibited devices, such as phones, are brought into facilities either by staff themselves or by not searching inmates properly. This kind of corruption fuels the criminal economy inside prisons and undermines justice.”