Image by Anna Zieminski
Once a week I go to Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison. People often have lots of questions about what it is like. Is it dangerous? Has anyone ever escaped? Are you in a cell with the guys? What’s the security like? Let me walk you through this.
Pollsmoor was made famous because Nelson Mandela served some time there. Its also sometimes referred to one of South Africa’s most notorious prisons. We showed a snippit of video here. I don’t take alot of photos for obvious reasons.
I guess it is an unusual place but after well over a year of going there it is starting to feel quite normal. There are just risks that come with this job that are like that. I drive up to the front gate, where I have to show an ID card that took me a very long time and lots of paperwork to obtain and then renew.
The guard has a bullet proof vest on and there is a boom that has to lift. Huge spikes come out of the ground that is sure to pop any tire if I tried to drive in too quick. I still wonder if the guard is accidentally going to push the button and how long it would take the government to buy me 2 new tires if he did.
image by Randall Langenhoven
Inside the walls it looks much like a small village, complete with it’s own farm and housing for the guards that work there. Even weirder, this about a 7 min walk from the US Consulate and a 10 min drive from my apartment! There are watch towers just like the ones in the movies with the snipers up there, except now the guard towers are all empty and run down, I guess the security cameras do that job now.
I actually drive around a few (at first confusing) blocks to get to my section where I park and go inside. One big gate in a very tall fence and then another tall fence 10 feet later, between the 2 fences are a bed of black rocks with security cameras pointing on it. I can guarantee you that if anyone shows up between those 2 fences there will be a lot of alarms and angry guards running around. That’s if you could ever get past the first fence.
At this point, I’m not even in the building yet.
Come back tomorrow for part 2 where I walk you through getting on the “inside” and discuss how, if ever, inmates have broken out.
