POLICY BRIEF Notes The Omega Research Foundation would like to thank Noël Stott, Senior Research Fellow, and Mothepa Shadung, Junior Researcher, Transnational Threats and International Crime Division, ISS Pretoria for their assistance in the drafting of this policy brief. 16 1 17 2 Department of Correctional Services, Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998, www.dcs.gov.za/Publications/Legislation. aspx. 3 Department of Correctional Services, Annual Report 2013/14, www.dcs.gov.gov.za -2013/2014Annual Report. 4 International Centre for Prison Studies, World prison brief: South Africa, 2014, www.prisonstudies.org/country/south-africa. 5 International Centre for Prison Studies, Highest to lowest – prison population rate, 2016, www.prisonstudies.org/highest-tolowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_ taxonomy_tid=All. 6 Department of Correctional Services, Annual Report 1999/2000, http://bit.ly/1FWOwWb. 7 Legal documents from the Eastern Cape High Court of South Africa held by the Omega Research Foundation. 8 9 10 T Arnott, I Cloete and J Gordon, Torture in South African prisons, Politics Web, 2011, www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/ torture-in-south-african-prisons. Government Gazette, Correctional Services Regulations 2004, as amended, 25 April 2012, Regulation Gazette No. 9739, Vol. 562, www.dcs.gov.za/Publications/ Legislation/Correctional%20Services%20 Regulations%202004%20as%20 amended%20on%2025%20April%202012. pdf. Department of Correctional Services, Chapter 16: Security equipment, B-Order, Sub-Order 2, Safety and Security. 12 Ibid. 13 L Flanagan, Prisoners in for a shock, IOL News, 9 February 2009, www.iol.co.za/ news/south-africa/prisoners-in-for-ashock-1.433834#.U2QSVlfiiP8. 14 Product datasheet of Force Group’s Anti’Scape Stun Belt, www.forcegroup. co.za/uploads/docs/law_enforcement__ antiscape_stunbelt.pdf. Republic of South Africa Government Tender Bulletin, Vol. 524, No. 25686, February 2009, http://bit.ly/1iYBhKC. Information records held by Omega Research Foundation were obtained through an access to information request submitted by the South African History Archive under request number SAH-2016-DCS-0003, accessible at: http://foip.saha.org.za/ request_tracker/entry/sah-2016-dcs-0003. 18 Omega Research Foundation archives. 19 Republic of South Africa Government Tender Bulletin, Vol. 581, No. 2801, 22 November 2013, http://bit.ly/1NP0uCn. 20 N Nanthakumar, S Massé, K Umapathy, P Dorian, E Sevaptsidis, and M Waxman, Cardiac stimulation with high voltage discharge from stun guns, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 178:11, 2008, 21 SA Nieto Dahlberg, The React Security Belt: Stunning prisoners and human rights groups into questioning whether its use is permissible under the United States and Texas Constitutions, 30 St. Mary’s Law Journal, 239, 2008, bit.ly/1KJEuu1 22 B Yeoman, Shocking Discipline, originally published by Mother Jones, 1 March 2000, http://barryyeoman.com/2000/03/shockingdiscipline/ 23 Ibid. 24 Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Report of Subcommittee on Conditions of Confinement on the Use of Stun Shields by the New York City Department of Correction, 129518 v.3, 2001, http://bit. ly/1E3dnXd. Department of Correctional Services, Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998, www. dcs.gov.za/Publications/Legislation.aspx. 11 15 8 See the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Government Gazette, Vol. 562, No. 35277, 25 April 2012, www.dcs.gov.za/Publications/ Legislation/Correctional%20Services%20 Regulations%202004%20as%20 amended%20on%2025%20April%202012. pdf 25 AM Cusac, Stunning technology, The Progressive, 1996, www.progressive.org/ mag_cusactech. 26 Ibid. 27 Amnesty International, The pain merchants: Security equipment and its use in torture and other ill-treatment, 2003, https:// www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ ACT40/008/2003/en/. 28 29 30 See Annex II of the EC Trade Regulation 1236/2005, as amended, http://eur-lex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qi d=1398468874828&uri=CELEX:0200 5R1236-20130701. Council of Europe, Press release: Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee calls for strict regulation of electrical discharge weapons, 26 October 2010, www.cpt.coe. int/en/annual/press/2010-10-26-eng.htm. UN General Assembly, Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 68th session, 2013, http:// COMPLIANCE THROUGH PAIN: ELECTRIC SHOCK EQUIPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICAN PRISONS antitorture.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ SMR_Report_August_2013.pdf. 31 Parliamentary Monitoring Group, Correctional services – Stakeholder hearings on the prevalence of torture in correctional centres, 2011, https://pmg.org. za/committee-meeting/13844/. 32 These norms and standards include, among others, the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the UN Revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials; the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment; the Kampala Declaration on Prison Conditions in Africa; and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture. 33 For example, the 2005 White Paper on Corrections, see www.dcs.gov.za/ AboutUs/.../WhitePaper/WHITE%20 PAPER%208.doc, and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, www. gov.za/DOCUMENTS/CONSTITUTION/ CONSTITUTION-REPUBLIC-SOUTHAFRICA-1996-1. 34 See Article 14 of the Robben Island Guidelines for the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture in Africa, 2008, www.achpr.org/ files/special-mechanisms/cpta/rig_practical_ use_book.pdf; and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, www.achpr. org/instruments/achpr/. 35 See Provision 2 of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, www.unrol.org/files/ BASICP~3.PDF. 36 PH Yoon, The ‘stunning’ truth: Stun belts debilitate, they prejudice, and they may even kill, Capital Defense Journal, 15:2, 1 March 2003, http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/ cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1531&context=wl ucdj. 37 UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules), E/CN.15/2015/L.6/Rev.1, http://bit. ly/1RkH215. 38 PH Yoon, The ‘stunning’ truth: Stun belts debilitate, they prejudice, and they may even kill, Capital Defense Journal, 15:2, 1 March 2003, http://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/ cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1531&context=wl ucdj. 39 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Guidelines on the conditions of arrest, police custody and pre-trial detention in Africa, 2014, www.achpr.org/instruments/ guidelines_arrest_detention/.