DCS raids Westville prison, seize illegal items amid nationwide crackdown

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS), in partnership with the South African Police Service (SAPS), recovered illegal items from inmates during a raid at Westville Correctional Centre in Durban on Thursday night.

The department has embarked on nationwide prison raids in an attempt to curb lawlessness. This comes after a video surfaced of an inmate bragging about his comfortable life at Goodwood Correctional Centre in Cape Town.

In the video, the inmate claims that life in prison is comfortable, with access to free food, electricity, and education.

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He says: “Hello haters, you put us in prison and you think we are suffering? No, my brother, we are doing extremely fine. Look how happy we are.”

The department conducted a raid at the prison and confiscated, among other items, cellphones.

On Thursday night, the raid extended to Westville Correctional Centre in Durban, where police confiscated illegal items including cellphones, drugs and money.

How inmates smuggle contraband

In a video shared by the department, Correctional Services national commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale explained how prisoners acquire contraband.

According to Thobakgale, some inmates go to court for appearances in the morning and return in the afternoon with cellphones.

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“We search them, but many of these contraband items are hidden inside their bodies, so you need high-tech equipment to identify them,” said Thobakgale.

The department is also seeing an increase in families and friends of inmates smuggling items during visits.

“Inmates receive visits from family members and friends who also bring contraband. We are now witnessing an increase in family members and friends participating in smuggling, bringing not only cellphones but also drugs,” he said.

“They are essentially committing crimes, so we open cases against them, and they join the inmate population.”

Correctional Services officials are also part of the problem, as they sometimes smuggle items for inmates.

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“Almost on a weekly basis, we catch and discipline them. We are working to clean the system from different angles.”

The department is exploring technology-centred solutions to disable smuggled cellphones inside the prisons.