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).

Gangsterism is a potent feature of Pollsmoor Prison life, and gangs are segregated into three separate sections on a single floor, accommodating a total of between 500 and 750.

Some members are so tied into the gang culture that life outside is unthinkable, and they would rather confess to a crime they didn't commit than be free men walking the streets.

[citation needed] The majority of prisoners are from oppressed communities where there is large-scale unemployment, a lack of educational and other facilities, homelessness and gangsterism.

As a predominantly awaiting-trial institution, there are few resources at Pollsmoor for prisoner programmes, other than visits by independent religious caregivers and non-governmental organisations.

This includes humane treatment that restores dignity, educating them on alternatives to violence in resolving conflict and giving them birds and feral cats to care for.

[7] Subotzky also commented on the meaning of this as well, where the viewers were part of the bureaucracy of getting into and eventually being locked into the maximum security prison.

When Herman Charles Bosman's Cold Stone Jug was staged at Zonderwater Prison in Cullinan, outside Pretoria, it was hailed as a world first.