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Pollsmoor Prison

Pollsmoor Prison, officially known as Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, is located in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai in South Africa. Pollsmoor is a maximum security penal facility that continues to hold some of South Africa's most dangerous criminals. Although the prison was designed with a maximum capacity of 4,336 offenders attended by a staff of 1,278, the current inmate population is over 7,000 (a figure which fluctuates daily).

Location

Steenberg Rd
Tokai, Cape Town

maximum

4,336

7,000+

1964

Department of Correctional Services

Cape Town

Western Cape

7945

South Africa

The Admission Centre serves a number of the courts in the Cape Peninsula (, Mitchell's Plain, Somerset West and Wynberg).

Cape Town

Medium A Prison houses both awaiting trial and sentenced juveniles between the ages of 14 and 17.

Medium B Prison houses sentenced adult males.

Medium C Prison houses sentenced adult males with sentences of up to a year, sentenced adult males on day-parole or soon-to-be-released males.

The Female Prison houses juvenile (under 18) and adult women, both awaiting-trial and sentenced. There are also a number of infants under the age of 2 living in the Female Prison.

is a South African artist convicted of murder in 2017.

Zwelethu Mthethwa

Pollsmoor in the media[edit]

BBC documentary[edit]

In 2001 Pollsmoor prison was the subject of Clifford Bestall's BBC documentary, where they focussed on two soon-to-be-released prisoners, Erefan Jacobs and Mogamat Benjamin (then leader of the "28" gang), and followed their adapting into civilian life again after their release.

Mikhael Subotzky photographs inside Pollsmoor[edit]

On 27 April 2005 (Freedom Day in South Africa) photographer Mikhael Subotzky exhibited his panoramic photographs of the inside of the prison at Pollsmoor. It was titled "'Die Vier Hoeke'" (The Four Corners) where the exhibition space echoed that which was being exhibited.[7] Subotzky also commented on the meaning of this as well, where the viewers were part of the bureaucracy of getting into and eventually being locked into the maximum security prison.


This trend (of having art events inside prisons) was continued in November 2005 when a play was staged at another South African prison. When Herman Charles Bosman's Cold Stone Jug was staged at Zonderwater Prison in Cullinan, outside Pretoria, it was hailed as a world first. Never before had an audience gone to view a play, put on and acted in by prisoners, in a maximum security prison.

Ross Kemp[edit]

In the series Ross Kemp on Gangs, Pollsmoor Prison was featured.

Long Walk to Freedom[edit]

In the film Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela is transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison after serving 18 years on the island.