Correctional Services addresses rape in prison

The National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Vernie Pietersen, says the department is currently reviewing and working on new policy dealing with offender rape in prison. Pietersen was speaking at a symposium in Pretoria focusing on offender rape in correctional facilities.

He says input by non-governmental organisations, the general public and academics, as well as former victims of prison rape, will form the base of their redrafted policy document.

Seminar facilitator and former ambassador to the Netherlands, Carl Niehaus, has commended prison management and the National Commissioner for taking out what he calls the hidden secret of sexual violence in prisons. Niehaus says as a former prisoner and victim of offender rape, he would like to see a visible change in the prison system and the perpetrators of offender rapes punished.