Prison for Profit

Ilse and Femke van Velzen’s documentary uses the investigative journalism of Ruth Hopkins as a jumping off point to explore the horrors found in South Africa’s Manguang Prison, a for-profit centre of incarceration run by the powerful British security firm G4S. When the prison opened in 2001, G4S promised low costs and humane treatment for the 3,000 prisoners held there. The reality proved very different… Using a combination of talking-head interviews with ex-inmates and prison guards and leaked surveillance videos, the van Velzens uncover the violence, torture, and severe conditions faced by inmates on a daily basis, all in the name of maximising profits for the multinational corporation. The end result is a carefully documented, air-tight case against allowing cost-cutting governments to farm out essential services like detention and rehabilitation to the private sector