In 2020 the minister of justice and correctional services, Ronald Lamola, revealed that the SA prison population was estimated at 155,000 people.

This was at the height of the Covid-19 response, that included the release of about 19,000 inmates in 2020 alone. While a mass release of prisoners was a global practice at a time when Covid-19 necessitated a reduction in crowding at correctional facilities, the public response to this in a crime-riddled and violent country like SA was a knee-jerk push back at the idea that convicted criminals would be allowed early parole...