Apex court rules that prisoners may use PCs in their cells for education | Breaking News & Latest South Africa Updates

Apex court rules that prisoners may use PCs in their cells for education — The Constitutional Court on Wednesday held that the blanket prohibition on personal computers in inmates’ cells infringes on their right to education....

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday held that the blanket prohibition on personal computers in inmates’ cells infringes on their right to education.

It said this was because inmates cannot access reading material for their studies and complete educational tasks when they are in their cells.

The case concerned the constitutional validity of a blanket ban imposed by the department of correctional services on the possession and use of computers by inmates in their cells in correctional centres. The ban emanated from a departmental policy approved in February 2007.

Mbalenhle Sydney Ntuli, an inmate who was serving a 20-year sentence at the Johannesburg correctional centre, challenged the ban in 2019.

At the time, he was registered with the Oxbridge Academy to pursue computer studies with a focus on data processing. Ntuli has since passed and graduated.

The high court in Johannesburgdeclared the blanket prohibition invalid and set it aside.

When the minister of correctional services appealed to theSupreme Court of Appeal, that court agreed with the high court that the policy was an infringement of Ntuli's right to pursue further education.

Before the Constitutional Court, the minister argued the prisoner was not being divested of his right to further education, nor was that right being infringed. The minister argued the right was purely being regulated in a reasonable manner in the circumstances imposed on offenders.

In its judgment on Wednesday, the Constitutional Court disagreed.

It held that the right to further education enshrined under section 29(1)(b) of the constitution encompassed access to textbooks and other tools necessary for fulfilling the right, including electronic tools.

For that to be effective, education must include adequate learning resources. This was true both inside and outside prison.

In the unanimous judgment, justice Stevan Mjiedt said the judgment was concerned only with the rights of prisoners to personal computers for educational purposes.

“Nothing in this judgment should be regarded as expressing any view on the justifiability of restrictions on the use of personal computers in cells for any other purposes.”

The court ordered the national commissioner of correctional services, within 12 months of the order, to prepare and promulgate a revised policy consistent with the principles laid down in the judgment.

The court said pending the revision of the policy, any inmate in correctional centres registered as a student with a recognised tertiary or further educational institution and who reasonably needs a computer to support their studies, and any student who has registered for a course of study that reasonably requires a computer as a compulsory part of the course, is entitled to use their personal computer without the use of a modem in their cell.

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