South Africa · Western Cape · Tokai, Cape Town
Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison
Step-by-step guidance using the South Africa system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
Cape Town's main remand and sentenced-prisoner facility. Nelson Mandela was held here in the 1980s.
Background
Pollsmoor Prison, officially known as Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, is located in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai in South Africa. Pollsmoor is a maximum security penal facility that continues to hold some of South Africa's most dangerous criminals. Although the prison was designed with a maximum capacity of 4,336 offenders attended by a staff of 1,278, the current inmate population is over 7,000 (a figure which fluctuates daily).
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
4,336
Current population
7,800
Occupancy
180%
Year opened
1964
Operational
Facility profile
Operator
Department of Correctional Services
Population held
male
Opened
1964
Region
Western Cape
Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
Severe overcrowding (often >175% of design capacity). Reports of inadequate sanitation and inmate-on-inmate violence.
Visiting
Booked via the DCS visits desk; ID required; visit lengths set by inmate's privilege grade.
Mailing
Inmate Name & DCS#, Pollsmoor Correctional Centre, Steenberg Road, Tokai 7945, South Africa.
Practical info
Visitor centre operated with NGO support.
Known issues
Constitutional Court rulings have ordered population reduction; compliance partial.
Notable inmates
Nelson Mandela (1982-1988), Oscar Pistorius (2015-2016).
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 22/30
- Oversight reports
- 6/30
- Structural flags
- 0/15
- Death signals
- 0/15
- Conditions text
- 3/10
What the score is responding to:
- · Severely overcrowded at 180% of capacity
- · 1 oversight report in the last 5 years
- · Severe-conditions keyword in sources
Trend over time
Population and occupancy by year. Source: official corrections statistics + oversight reports.
Population held
Occupancy %
Reports
- Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services10 Dec 2023
Pollsmoor running at 184% of design capacity; remand population is the principal driver.
Data completeness
100%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- Department of Correctional Services — South Africa
- Human Rights Watch — World Report — Human Rights Watch
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.