16/02/2004 17:14 - (SA)

Pretoria - There was currently no means of protecting awaiting-trial prisoners from rape in jail, the Jali Commission of Inquiry into prison mal-administration heard on Monday.

"You can get a guy who stole a bread because he was hungry with a serial rapist in one cell," Pretoria local prison social worker Helena du Toit testified.

To rectify this, she said a system should be introduced of classifying unsentenced inmates into different categories - as was done with their sentenced counterparts.

Du Toit told the commission that sexual abuse was much more prevalent among unsentenced prisoners than sentenced ones.

This had partly to do with the fact that overcrowding in their section was much worse, and warders therefore had less control.

Du Toit testified she knew of no policy on isolating new prison admissions vulnerable to sexual attack - such as gay and lesbian people. Rape and sodomy were common complaints, and a policy needed to be developed to deal with it.

"There needs to be research on a national level."

Tip of the iceberg

Questioned by evidence leader Graham Barlow, Du Toit conceded that those sexual abuse cases reported to prison authorities were most likely the tip of the iceberg. Men, especially, she said, were hesitant to reveal they had been raped.

"Is it so, that while the death penalty may have been abolished, being raped in prison is almost as bad given the prevalence of HIV/Aids?" Barlow asked - to which Du Toit agreed.

The commission also heard evidence from two police members that it was difficult for prisoners to lay charges against warders or fellow inmates.

Inspector Hermanus Steyn said investigators did not have direct access to prisoners, and had to rely on correctional services staff to bring complainants to them. Steyn was formerly attached to a police division solely probing offences arising from prisons.

"Would you agree that for a prisoner to lay a charge against a warder or fellow prisoner is extremely difficult - and depends on whether correctional services gives them that access?" Barlow asked. Steyn conceded this was so.

"So if a warder doesn't allow a prisoner to lay a charge, you as a policeman will never get to hear about it?" questioned Barlow. "That is true," Steyn replied.

Another inspector, Eben Gerber, agreed that a police member's powers to investigate were dependent upon the goodwill of prison staff.