Six years after legislation was passed, prisoners in South African jails are still waiting to benefit from laws that will make parole boards independent, regulate solitary confinement and monitor mechanical restraints.

"The new Minister (of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour) should see to it that the new act is promulgated in total, bringing the treatment and conditions of prisoners under the ambit of the Constitution.

It has been delayed for too long," said Advocate Kamraj Anirudhra, national manager of legal services for the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons.

According to Anirudhra, 1998's Correctional Services Act, promulgated in part, was meant to replace 1959's act, and amend key provisions.

However, the sections awaiting promulgation are causing confusion for prisoners and correctional services staff.

For example, the new act's section dealing with the ability to handle complaints and requests from prisoners regarding conditions or treatment has not been promulgated.

"A prisoner might raise a complaint and the warder or official could tell him he doesn't have to deal with it because it is not law and, therefore, he is not obliged to do so... It is happening," said Anirudhra.

And there is a Judicial Inspectorate which is supposed to deal with prisoner complaints, creating tension between the act and the inspectorate's functions.

Anirudhra said there was a "real problem" with the provisions regarding solitary confinement, all cases of which needed to be reported to the inspectorate.

"We need to ensure that prisoners placed there are doing so under humane conditions and for proper reasons," he said, adding that the old legislation made no provision for the oversight of prisoners in solitary confinement.

Asked what the rate of detention in solitary confinement was, Anirudhra said no figures were available, but he said it was still "widely used" in prisons across the country.

Correctional services spokesman Luzuko Jacobs denied there was widespread use of solitary confinement, but said the department accepted there was confusion between "isolation" and "solitary confinement".

Solitary confinement was used as a "disincentive" and isolation to waiving certain privileges.

For example if a prisoner was in a communal cell and misbehaved, then the privilege of watching television was denied and the prisoner would be isolated.

Jacobs said solitary confinement was not provided for in the current 1959 legislation, but would be implemented once the new legislation came into force.

Anirudhra said the inspectorate's records indicated that about five complaints from prisoners were received monthly, but that this was not necessarily a true indication of how many prisoners were subjected to soliray confinement.

The new act also addressed prisoners being restrained in mechanical devices, such as a straitjacket or even their being cuffed to metal cell bars.

There was also a section of the act making provision for the establishment of new parole boards independent of the department.

The present system was perceived by prisoners to be "biased and conservative" in granting parole, especially in the policing of prisoners on medical parole.

Correctional services spokesman Luzuko Jacobs said there were "problems" with certain sections of the parole board regulations.

The police and people in the justice sectors wanted amendments, around, for example the constitution of parole boards and correctional supervision boards.

"All regulations were submitted to Parliament in 2001 and a response was received in 2004," said Jacobs.

Jacobs said a "high-level task team" was currently assessing the state of readiness for implementation at provincial level, with a report expected "urgently" ahead of the July 31 implementation date. - Sapa