Overcrowding in South African prisons has been reduced from about 164% in 2004 to some 142% this year, Correctional Services chief deputy commissioner of security Willem Damons said on Wednesday.

Briefing the National Assembly's Correctional Services committee, he said this was still not satisfactory.

As at June 30, 2009, a total number of 163 108 inmates were accommodated in the 237 active prisons with approved accommodation for 114 822 inmates.

Sentenced offenders totalled 116 087, of which 2 549 were female and 113 538 male, representing 71,17% of the total inmate population.

Awaiting trial detainees (ATDs) numbered 47 021 (28,83%), of which 994 were female and 46 027 male.

Additional capacity for 3 956 inmates would be created within the next year, with the first, at Kimberley (3 000 beds), due for completion at the end of October.

Vanrynsdorp would follow on March 31 next year (328 beds), Warmbokkeveld (282 beds) on October 6, and Brandvlei (346 beds) on October 10 next year.

The accommodation gain at Kimberley should result in a 4,75% decrease in the average national occupation rate - from 142,58% to 137,83%, Damons said.

The occupation level at 19 prisons was over 200%, at 21 between 175% and 200%, at 47 between 150% and 174%, at 101 between 100% and 149%, and at 50 less than 100%.

Overcrowding, in the case of ATDs, was driven by the nerve centres in metropolitan areas, such as East London, Mthatha, Pollsmoor (Cape Town), Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria, serving a multitude of courts.

The impact of this was that all these centres were highly overcrowded - Pollsmoor at 223%, Johannesburg at 235%, East London at 201%, Pretoria at 194%, and Durban at 164%.

Hundreds of ATDs were released and admitted on a daily basis.

In addition, owing to specific magisterial boundaries within which courts, correctional services, and police functioned, it was seldom possible to transfer overflows to other correctional centres, such as from Johannesburg to Krugersdorp.

The outflow was also limited owing to the ATDs' profiles. The majority had no bail option, were accused of aggressive and sexual crimes, and there was a lack of support systems to release some ATDs.

Blockages within the criminal justice system (CJS) further impacted negatively on detention cycle times, he said.

The department was looking at, among other things, establishing remand detention facilities.

Regarding sentenced prisoners, drivers included mandatory minimum sentences since 1997 resulting in an increase in the number and percentage of offenders sentenced to very long periods in jail, implying a slower turnover rate.

About 71% of these offenders fell in the aggressive and sexual crimes category.

There was also a continuous incarceration of offenders serving very short sentences, less than six months, impacting negatively on time available for rehabilitation programmes.

Courts were also reluctant to optimally use diversion options, such as correctional supervision.

Some 6 672 offenders with fines as alternative to imprisonment were still in custody on June 30 because they could not afford to pay their fines.

Damons said key solutions included encouraging debate about the reasons for incarceration as a sentence and encouraging an approach to appropriate sentencing focused on facilitating rehabilitation.

Correctional supervision should be enhanced so it could be used as an appropriate sentence for less serious crimes.

The levels of sentenced offenders should be managed through improving appropriate use of sentence conversion to correctional supervision, release on parole, and transfers between prisons to achieve some degree of even overcrowding, Damons said.