Cape town: The Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Pieter Groenewald, has advocated for alternative approaches to address overcrowding in the country's correctional services.

According to South African Government News Agency, speaking during a Parliamentary Questions for Oral Reply session for the Peace and Security cluster on Wednesday, the Minister revealed that the Department of Correctional Services currently has some 107,000 beds available for inmates. Sentenced inmates already occupy at least 106,280 of these beds.

The main pressure, Dr Groenewald noted, stems from remand detainees-individuals held in custody while awaiting trial-who currently number 62,002. This has pushed overcrowding levels at correctional facilities to 58%. He emphasized the need to accommodate all individuals arrested and sent to correctional services, and highlighted the potential for alternative measures such as the Criminal Procedures Act, which allows for bail reviews. In the previous financial year, the department referred 8,849 cases for bail review, but only succeeded in 1,278 cases.

Dr Groenewald also mentioned that approximately 3,300 remand detainees could not afford bail of less than R1,000, costing the state taxpayer R463 per day to keep them in custody. He referenced the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) Bail Fund initiative, led by former Inspecting Judge Edwin Cameron, which established a private fund to pay bail and facilitate the release of these detainees.

The Minister expressed strong support for incorporating community service into sentencing in courts as an alternative to imprisonment. He stated that his department is in contact with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to explore appropriate alternatives to imprisonment.