The Mangaung Prison (Afrikaans : Mangaung-gevangenis) is a maximum security prison in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. The prison is privately owned and managed by the company G4S as part of a consortium. [1] The South African Department of Correctional Services signed a 25-year contract with the consortium in 2000. The prison can accommodate around 3,000 prisoners. [2]
In October 2013, the department temporarily took over the prison, after G4S "lost effective control of the facility". [3] In October, a female custodian with 13 years of experience was taken hostage by prisoners. She was later saved unharmed by a special police task force. [4]
After staging a self-immolation in his cell on 3 May 2022, Thabo Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Center with the apparent help of the guards. [5]
In 2019 the documentary 'Prison for profit' was published about problems and use of excessive force in the prison. Investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins has mentioned that the South African minister for correctional services S'bu Ndebele in 2013 would arrange an investigation which would be published within 30 days. The report was not yet released in 2019. [6]
G4S Secure Solutions (USA) is an American/British-based security services company, and a subsidiary of G4S plc. It was founded as The Wackenhut Corporation in 1954, in Coral Gables, Florida, by George Wackenhut and three partners. In 2002, the company was acquired for $570 million by Danish corporation Group 4 Falck. In 2010, G4S Wackenhut changed its name to G4S Secure Solutions (USA) to reflect the new business model. The G4S Americas Region headquarters is in Jupiter, Florida.
Serco Group plc is a British multinational defence, health, space, justice, migration, customer services, and transport company. It is headquartered in Hook, Hart, England. The company operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and Hong Kong, and North America. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
G4S is a British multinational private security company headquartered in London, England. The company was set up in July 2004 when London-based Securicor amalgamated with Danish firm Group 4 Falck. The company offers a range of services, including the supply of security personnel, monitoring equipment, response units and secure prisoner transportation. G4S also works with governments overseas to deliver security services.
A private prison, or for-profit prison, is a place where people are imprisoned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate, either for each prisoner in the facility, or for each place available, whether occupied or not. Such contracts may be for the operation only of a facility, or for design, construction and operation.
Kingston Penitentiary is a former maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, between King Street West and Lake Ontario.
California State Prison, Corcoran (COR) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Corcoran, in Kings County, California. It is also known as Corcoran State Prison, CSP-C, CSP-COR, CSP-Corcoran, and Corcoran I. The facility is just north of the newer California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran.
Mount Gambier Prison is an Australian prison located in Moorak immediately south of Mount Gambier. It is managed and operated by G4S.
Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, formerly the Deer Park Metropolitan Women's Correctional Centre (MWCC) is a maximum security women's prison located at Deer Park, Victoria, Australia. Built in 1996, it was the first privately-owned prison in Victoria, but was transferred to public ownership in 2000 and is now run by Corrections Victoria. It also houses medium security and all protection prisoners.
A military prison is a prison operated by a military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime. There are two types: penal and confinement-oriented, where captured enemy combatants are confined for military reasons until hostilities cease. Most militaries have some sort of military police unit operating at the divisional level or below to perform many of the same functions as civilian police, from traffic-control to the arrest of violent offenders and the supervision of detainees and prisoners of war.
Port Phillip Prison is a maximum security prison located at Truganina, Victoria, Australia. It is Victoria's largest maximum security prison, able to accommodate up to 1117 prisoners. The prison is privately operated on behalf of the Government of Victoria by G4S Australia Pty Ltd. The prison is expected to close in December 2025, with prisoners to be relocated to the Western Plains Correctional Centre in Lara.
Auburn Correctional Facility is a state prison on State Street in Auburn, New York, United States. It was built on land that was once a Cayuga village. It is classified as a maximum security facility.
Moses Sithole is a South African serial killer and rapist who committed the ABC Murders. It is believed that he is so named because they began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and finished in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg. However, many other sources state that the cities were not in that order, rather beginning in Cleveland, continuing in Boksburg and finishing in Atteridgeville. This has not been denied nor confirmed.
The United States Penitentiary, Coleman I and II are high-security United States federal prisons for male inmates in Florida. It is part of the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex and is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. USP Coleman I was opened in 2001, and in 2004 Clark Construction completed a 555,000-square-foot (51,600 m2) additional component for USP Coleman II.
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company's facilities include immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. It also operates government-owned facilities pursuant to management contracts. As of December 31, 2021, the company managed and/or owned 86,000 beds at 106 facilities. In 2019, agencies of the federal government of the United States generated 53% of the company's revenues. Up until 2021 the company was designated as a real estate investment trust, at which time the board of directors elected to reclassify as a C corporation under the stated goal of reducing the company's debt.
Prisons in South Africa are run by the Department of Correctional Services. The department is divided into six administrative regions, each with its own regional commissioner, and subdivided into multiple areas, each headed by an area commissioner. According to the ministry, there are approximately 34,000 employees of the department running 240 prisons. In those prisons are nearly 156,000 inmates as of August 2013. The prisons include minimum, medium, maximum and super-maximum security facilities. They may be entirely dedicated to a specific group of prisoners, such as women or children, or be divided into separate sections for each group. Since 2024, the Minister of Correctional Services has been Pieter Groenewald.
Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD) is a California state prison in unincorporated southern San Diego County, California, near San Diego. It is a part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The facility sits on 780 acres (320 ha). It is the only state prison in San Diego County. It is named after Richard J. Donovan.
Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane in South Africa. It is operated by the South African Department of Correctional Services.
G4S describes itself as "the world's leading provider of security solutions" and provides security services for over 40 embassies around the world, works as stewards at football stadiums and runs over six British prisons, operates prisoner tagging schemes, assists within the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom, and provides administrative roles to the health and education sectors. The company operates as a subsidiary of an American security services provider Allied Universal since April 2021.
Thabo Bester is a South African convicted rapist and murderer who escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in South Africa after faking his death in a fire in his prison cell in May 2022. He was on the run for almost a year before being caught in Arusha, Tanzania on 8 April 2023. He was arrested along with his partner and alleged accomplice, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana. Bester had become known as the "Facebook rapist" because he used the platform to lure models with fake job opportunities. He pleaded guilty to two rapes and one murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
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