I am trying to determine the reason we have a crime problem in South Africa & to perhaps find a solution to in.
Most people are blaming the police saying they don’t do their work, they are not effective & they are involved with the criminals.
The police reply they are under staffed, they don’t have sufficient training & they don’t have enough equipment to their tasks.
To try & determine where the problem is I’m looking at the whole criminal process from the time a person is arrested to the time he is released from prison.
I am trying to gather statistical data on the police, judicial system & the prison system.
Some of the information may be considered confidential by the above departments but lets see what information we can get.
To start lets look at the police force.
I am trying to find statistics for number of cases reported to the sap per annum? (if this can be broken do into different categories even better)
2) the number or percentage of solved & unsolved cases p.a.?
3) How many police station’s cells are filled beyond their maximum capacity on a long weekend?
4)How many police station’s cells & how many times are they filled beyond their maximum capacity in a year?

I haven’t decided exactly what stats we need in the judicial system yet.


Regarding the prison services I have managed to find this news article date 4 march 2013.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Ne...frica-20130304

According to Sibusiso Ndebele (Minister of correctional services)
1) Every month, about 23 000 inmates are released, but another 25 000 enter the system
2) 64 959 offenders are not currently incarcerated, with 48 323 being out on parole, 14 917 being provisionally released and 1 719 awaiting trial
3) Most prisoners were young black men and 53 000 were youths
4) There are many 17-year-olds found guilty of serious crimes. They have left school, are illiterate and homeless
5) It costs (tax payers)R8 000 a month to keep a prisoner in jail.
So far I have been able to establish that every month there are approximately 2000 prisoners added to the prison compliment & it costs the tax payer R96 000-00 per annum to keep one prisoner detained.
Minister Sibusiso Ndebele doesn’t give a total amount of prisoners they have in prison at any specific time in this article.

According to a CNN article dated February 21, 2013,
1) Correctional Services Department spokesman Koos Gerber said according to official figures for 2011 to 2012, there were 158,790 prison inmates in South Africa, a nation of nearly 52 million, of whom about 30% were on remand awaiting trial.
2) According to Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi, project coordinator for the Johannesburg-based Wits Justice Project, Overcrowding is a particular problem in remand prisons, where it runs at just over 200%, she said, citing figures from the Department of Correctional Services. Overall, overcrowding in prisons stands at about 133%.
I haven’t been able to find any sats regarding the length of the prison sentences but lets assume the average length of 50% of the prisoners sentences is above 1 year.
That would mean the prison services cost the tax payer R1524 3840 000-00
Every year this is going to be increased by 24 000 prisoners which would mean an extra
R2 304 000-00 excluding inflation & building more prisons.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any newer data then this yet.

Regarding the prison services I am still trying to find the following stats:
1) How many people are illiterate when sent to prison & how many of them are still illiterate when they are released from prison?
2) How many prisoners have been released from prison & re-arrested within a year?
3) How many prisoners have been released from prison & re-arrested within a 10 year period?