Prison Journalism: From Streets to Cells: A Journey of Hardships and Consequences

Street life is hard: drugs, crime, gangsterism, and prostitution— all kinds of horrible things. What makes it difficult is that you don’t have shelter, and you don’t even know when and what your next meal will be. You have to hustle for survival. I was introduced to street life by a friend who fed his drug addiction by shoplifting and engaging in other criminal activities. I remember the day he made me smoke drugs; I vomited all day and got sick. That’s when I realized I was in the wrong place.

CAUGHT IN A CYCLE OF CRIME AND CONSEQUENCES

This is how I landed in South Africa and started doing drugs. I left Zimbabwe and came all the way down to the motherland without valid documents. My friend introduced me to shoplifting, and we did it together. It started slowly until I started doing it alone. Little did I know that I was going to end up in jail. I remember one day when I was caught stealing in a shop at Woolworths. They called the police, and I was arrested. I went to court, but since I was a first offender, they let me go. However, I didn’t stop that habit. I was arrested on eight different occasions until they gave me my first 10 days in jail. That was my first time going to jail.

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FACING THE HARSH REALITIES OF PRISON LIFE

I went to court, and my case was investigated. It was discovered that I had been arrested 10 times using different names on each occasion. This time, the judge didn’t have mercy on me, so I was sent to jail for the first time. I was sentenced to 10 days. It started in the room where everybody waits before going inside the courtroom. That’s when I saw prison gangs for the first time—26, 27, and 28. They were called insinzwa (Xhosa), Ndodha, and Owens (Afrikaans). They ordered everybody to sit down if you were not a gang member. They started intimidating non-gang members, whom they called Mbatha or Frans. They would hold a sort of meeting, and after that, they would come and ask everyone if they were a gang member or not, always asking, “Ncwala Kanjani?”

TERRIFYING ENCOUNTERS AND SURVIVAL TACTICS BEHIND BARS

If you couldn’t answer, they would start searching you, taking whatever you had. If you had nice shoes, they would take them. It was my first time seeing someone smuggling a small phone inside their stomach using the rectum. They would hide things such as drugs and money. I was so terrified. Everything was new to me, and they would take those things as soon as we arrived at Pollsmor. We were in a truck that carried prisoners.

I was a juvenile, so at least I was not going to the maximum-security prison where all the scary things about the number are performed. That was my first time going to Polsmor. At the gate, I saw a sign written in bold: “A PLACE OF NEW BEGINNING.” As soon as we arrived, everybody was ordered to get out of the truck. The prison officer told everybody to take off all their clothes, and we would start being searched. Everybody was naked.

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That’s where I saw the gangsters with bodies covered in green prison tattoos, written in bold: 26, 27, 28, and others with phrases like “from school to jail,” “Why always ME,” “only God can judge me.” Another fellow prisoner who worked at the reception gave us new prisoners prison clothes. It was a navy blue trouser and a jacket, written with white “Correctional Services.” Everybody was given 6 slices of bread and a jolly juice. Then we were taken to single cells where we slept for just one night before being taken to a bigger cell where there were about 30-50 other prisoners. As we entered the cell, nobody could just go and sleep or choose a bed. There were a lot of rules. Gang members were the leaders who gave orders, and fighting in a cell was a daily activity.

I completed my 10-day sentence, but it felt like it was 10 years. But it didn’t end there because I knew I was going to go back to the streets and the criminal world. It was just the start of a routine of going in and out of prison.

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Should you wish to assist in the rehabilitation of former inmates and help put money into the pockets of those who have struggled to earn a living during and after incarceration, click HERE 

DISCLAIMER: Submission published as received by Dean Mashimbwe.

RESTORE is an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, providing inmates at Pollsmoor Prison with restorative justice opportunities.

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