Seminar "From Safety to Cruelty", addressing South Africa's super-maximum prisons

Gwen Dereymaeker gave the following presentation at a seminar organised by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services at the Durban Correctional Centre on 7 September 2017. The seminar was entitled "From Safety to Cruelty". She first addresses the history of super-maximum prisons around the world, international criticism of supermax (being prolonged solitary confinement), and the supermax regime in the US and the UK. She then examines the South African regime, in particular that of Ebongweni: admission criteria, detention regime, challenges and questions whether the detention regime such as that practiced at Ebongweni is constitutional.