Prison Journalism: Jobs for inmates in prisonDean Mashimbwe, a Zimbabwean migrant residing in Cape Town, was incarcerated at Pollsmoor Correctional Centre from 2016 until 2017.
by Dean Mashimbwe
01-03-2024 08:56
in Prison Journalism
Prison. Image via unsplash
In most correctional services in prison, inmates are given jobs as soon as they see the parole board. During the time I was incarcerated in Pollsmoor, most inmates would do cooking, cleaning, clerical work, and maintenance chores. This helped prisoners to reduce boredom and stress rather than being locked up all day.
--
How I Got a Job in Prison During the first days of my incarceration, I was so depressed I would spend the whole day sleeping until one day a certain female warden visited our section looking for inmates who could help her to clean at the visit section. I was one of the people who were selected with other 4, unfortunately, I was the only one who was permanently selected. That warden went straight to the parole board and told them she wanted me to be classified so that I could be monthly paid. So, I started working as a visit cleaner, getting R30 a month. As someone who wasn't getting visits, this money helped me a lot to get toiletries and other basic commodities. This job also made me to be trusted even by the wardens. Even the members of the number gang started to like me as I was doing their illegal work of transporting their things without the wardens knowing. As someone who was always outside than other inmates, this made me to be taught how to speak the number in exchange for the things I was getting from my visit work. Even when the inmates were distributed in other jails around Western Cape, I was one of the people who were left at Pollsmoor Correctional Service because of my job.
Reintegration in Society There are other inmates who have been in prison for a long time, let's say for example an inmate who has been in jail for 25 years and he is about to be released. These inmates are allowed to work outside of prison being monitored by the Correctional officers. I think this helps a lot especially to the society to easily accept the inmates back into the society, forgiving him without judging him or her. This also helps prisoners to gain skills so that when they get released, they will not struggle to get jobs because the prison also offers inmates the opportunity to study while they are serving their sentence.
Advantages of Giving Work to Inmates Giving work to inmates within the prison has a lot of benefits to the Prison Management which includes keeping inmates busy to reduce the performance of gangsterism and violence. It also means that controlling inmates would be easy for them as they create a good relationship with the wardens. This also helps the physical and mental well-being of the inmates as they are always kept busy. Even the inmates will encourage each other; this reduces the aggressiveness within the inmates. Which inmates are likely to be given jobs in prison.
--
In Pollsmoor, inmates who are likely to be given jobs are those inmates who are at minimum and medium security level. These offenders are considered as low risk or non-violent and are entitled to greater privileges. Only a few inmates who are at maximum security level of the Prison are given jobs. The only common task inmates from maximum security which is most likely to be given is only a few selected inmates which can help to give food to other inmates. Mostly inmates who are given jobs in prison are sentenced offenders. Mostly inmates who are at maximum prison are inmates who have serious offences such as murder, armed robbery etc., and these inmates are mostly on trial.
Hours Inmates Required to Work In Pollsmoor, prisoners work one hour to two hours a day depending on the type of a job like sweeping a small, assigned patch in the yard, or emptying three particular garbage bags at a specific time, or mopping the restrooms.
When I was working at the Visit Section I used to work for about 3 hours from 8 till 12.00.
--
There are also the jobs that keep the prison functioning in Pollsmoor; all the plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, roofing, and maintenance is done by inmates. The cooking is also done by inmates, especially those with longer sentences; these ones are given long working hours. Besides jobs provided by the prison to inmates, also free education, studies are provided to all sentenced juveniles and also to adult learners. When I was in prison, one of my friends completed his grade 12; his intentions were to pursue his studies and get a degree when he comes out of prison.
In conclusion, I can say all this has helped inmates to rehabilitate themselves and get the chance to revisit what they did wrong in the past. Most of the inmates who have done their education in prison are more likely to succeed when they get out of prison.
DISCLAIMER: Submission published as received
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
RESTORE is an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, providing inmates at Pollsmoor Prison with restorative justice opportunities.
If you have any questions you would like to ask our prison journalists, WhatsApp us on 060 011 0211.
Do you have contact with a prison inmate who would like to write for The South African website? If so, send an email to info@thesouthafrican.com or a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211.
You can also follow @TheSAnews on Twitter and The South African on Facebook to get the latest prison journalism articles.
Support Women in Journalism in 2024 - Support us to fund independent women journalism
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Prison Journalism: Jobs for inmates in prisonDean Mashimbwe, a Zimbabwean migrant residing in Cape Town, was incarcerated at Pollsmoor Correctional Centre from 2016 until 2017.
