Horrifying story for incarcerated women in Gauteng prisons
By Savious Kwinika

November 2, 2006 - (CAJ) Women prisoners in Gauteng are seven times more likely to have been raped as children than the general female population and they experience a higher-than-average degree of violence in their intimate relationships.

These were the findings of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) sanctioned Gender –based Violence Programme, that was carried out among girls and women in three Gauteng prisons.

In the minority report in the just-released CSVR Annual Review of 2005 that was compiled by Lisa Vetten, the focus of the programme was on women imprisoned for killing their abusive partners. Researchers found that incarcerated women generally experience violence and abuse.

Research team members were confronted by warders who were rude, contemptuous and had omnipotent behaviour. In several cases researchers were made to wait for hours before the could see the imprisoned women, while at the same time the women prisoners were not told that they had been visited by the researchers.

The visited women were allowed to get food brought by their visitors, but were denied the right to get the food on some visits. A total of 348 women were interviewed at three Gauteng prisons by a team of 14 researchers from the CSVR, and permission to release the findings was granted by the Department of Correctional Services in November 2005.

Almost 87% of the incarcerated women had experienced at least one form of abuse in their intimate relationships in their life. The study concluded that 51% of the women interviewed had experienced some form of abuse or violence in jail the past year. The jailed women spoke of isolation, loss of contact with their families, worries about their children and concerns about their own health.

“The levels of disadvantage are quite overwhelming. The women had experienced neglect and/or ill-treatment in childhood, violence and/or abuse I their relationships, and now they are in prison,” said Vetten in the report.

Vetten said this scenario was quite depressing and called for a balance to be struck between women’s past experiences and holding them responsible for their actions. “More creative ways of sanctioning unlawful behaviour must be found, beyond the highly punitive nature of imprisonment in South Africa,” said Vetten.

From: http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/recent.titleStory&sp=l55196