POLICY BRIEF Mangaung Correctional Centre, near Bloemfontein. The prisoners’ claims include being subjected to electric shocks, being forcibly injected with anti-psychotic drugs and being held in isolation cells for up to three years. British law firm Leigh Day, which represented the inmates before the case was moved to South Africa, reported that information provided by the plaintiffs attests to: ... a culture of abuse and fear that appears to have been endemic in Mangaung Correctional Centre for years. Many allegations involve inmates being taken to solitary cells where there are no cameras, stripped naked and forced on to a metal bed with water thrown on them before being repeatedly shocked with electric shields, including to the head and genitals.48 Inmate John Banda recalled abuse at the prison: ‘At Mangaung warders often called the special securities who came with dogs, shock shields and guns. They made you take off your clothes and wet you – the shock is more powerful when you’re wet.’49 Another inmate, Mzwi Shabalala, spoke of treatment at Mangaung: ‘The warders are very violent here and use shock shields regularly. They take inmates to a single cell and beat the s*** out of them. I’ve had blood in my urine after being shocked at high voltage.’50 The South African government conducted its own investigation into the case, but has not released the findings publicly. A legal case involving the alleged misuse of stun shields against children was brought against a facility that houses minors awaiting trial In 2014 around 20 inmates claimed that they had been assaulted and tortured with stun shields by members of the EST at Leeuwkop Max C Prison.51 They brought an urgent application before the South Gauteng High Court. One of the examining doctors was ‘absolutely shocked’ at the brutality of the beatings, saying, ‘[t]he four inmates I examined were all badly beaten but the injuries on two of them indicated they had been severely assaulted, viciously attacked and seriously injured. One of them had bad burn-marks on his back consistent with electric shock. I found contusions, burn marks, bruising, lacerations and swellings on all of them.’ Another legal case, Bradley McCallum v. SA, involves an incident of torture that took place at St Albans Correctional Centre in July 2005. McCallum said that warders at the correctional facility beat him with batons and stun shields, and sexually assaulted him.53 He was then denied access to medical treatment and legal counsel. The case was taken to the UN Human Rights Commission, which in 2010 found that South 2014 AROUND 20 INMATES CLAIMED THAT THEY HAD BEEN ASSAULTED AND TORTURED WITH STUN SHIELDS BY MEMBERS OF THE EST AT LEEUWKOP MAX C PRISON Africa had violated its obligations in terms of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights.54 A class action lawsuit was subsequently launched against the Minister for Correctional Services for damages on behalf of McCallum and 230 other St Albans prisoners.55 A legal case involving the alleged misuse of stun shields against children was also brought against a facility that houses minors awaiting trial on criminal charges.56 The chief magistrate who heard complaints about this incident said that while less-lethal riot equipment can legally be used by correctional services, they cannot be used against children: ‘There’s no provision for that in any law. It is authorised for use only in prisons, and children’s centres are not prisons.’57 6 COMPLIANCE THROUGH PAIN: ELECTRIC SHOCK EQUIPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICAN PRISONS