f. g. h. i. j. k. l. m. n. o. i) • • The Leeuwkop Management Area (Gauteng) Leeuwkop Juvenile Centre Leeukop Maximum Correctional Centre The Humewood Police Station (Eastern Cape) Durban Central Police Station (Kwa Zulu Natal) Moroka Police Station (Gauteng) Alexandra Police Station (Gauteng) The Lindela Repatriation Centre (Gauteng) Lentegeur Mental Hospital (Gauteng) Mangaung One Stop Child Justice Center (Free State) Dyambu Youth Centr (Gauteng) The Leseding Youth Center (Gauteng) Letengeur Mental Hospital The Letengeur Mental Hospital is located in the Western Cape Province, some 70 kilometers from the Provincial Capital, Cape Town. The premises are located in a 106-hectare piece of land and comprise 19 big units. It holds about 940 patients/clients ranging from acute psychotic to forensic patients. The latter category is sent to the Hospital by the courts in terms of Section 28 of the 1973 Mental Health Act. Section 79(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977 provides for referral of a defendant for a 30-day psychiatric observation at a state psychiatric hospital. The primary enquiry is directed at establishing the presence of mental illness (which they vaguely define in the Mental Health Act of 1973 as a disability or disease of the mind', i.e., the courts entrust its definition to the attending psychiatrists), or mental disability (which practically encompasses mental retardation and dementia). If a defendant is certified not competent to stand trial and /or lacks criminal responsibility the charges are withdrawn and he/she is referred to a State psychiatric hospital for indefinite hospitalisation under section 28 of the Mental Health Act (whereupon he becomes known as a 'State patient'). Discharge depends on a lengthy process whereby the Attorney-General has to be petitioned to allow his/her discharge to proceed. If the original charge was nonviolent then the Attorney-General generally advises the hospital that the hospital board (which sits quarterly) can effect discharge. If the original charge is deemed to have been violent then reports have to be obtained from a social worker (to investigate the patient's social circumstance and to determine if he/she will be adequately cared for and controlled by family), the attending psychiatrist, a medical officer familiar with the patient and the superintendent of the hospital. These reports are then submitted via the Attorney-General for consideration by a judge in chambers. The Attorney-General retains the discretion not to pass the application onto the judge. On occasion, the documents have been returned to the hospital with a cursory note advising the forensic unit that the Attorney-General does not agree with their opinion that the patient is ready for discharge. It is often overlooked that none of these defendants have been tried and convicted of the original charge, yet the discharge procedure assumes that he/she is indeed guilty and has to be treated like a dangerous felon. A judge in chambers will generally issue an order for the 16 Special Rapporteur on Prisons Mission to South Africa 14 – 30 June 2004