James was participating in a parliamentary debate on the ongoing crisis in the country\u2019s correctional facilities, which continue to operate far above capacity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James argued that a significant number of inmates are foreign nationals and alleged that the cost of incarcerating them places an undue burden on SA taxpayers. She claimed that approximately 26 000 foreign nationals are being housed in SA prisons at a cost of roughly $1 000 per inmate per month.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout $300 million are taken directly from SA taxpayers every year. This is not money spent on South Africans, not on victims of crime, not on improving safety in our communities,\u201d James said. \u201cInstead, it is spent on housing and feeding 26 000 foreign criminals in our prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She told parliament that these costs contribute to the ongoing pressure on the correctional system, which has long struggled with overcrowding, limited rehabilitation programmes and strained resources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOne simple solution to end overcrowding is to deport every single one of these foreign criminals to their country of origin and make their governments pay the costs,\u201d she said. \u201cSA is not a hotel for housing foreign criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABC\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30087,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30086","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa's (SA) ActionSA Member of Parliament, Dereleen James, has told the National Assembly that the only viable solution to SA\u2019s overcrowded correctional centres is the deportation of foreign nationals serving prison sentences.\u00a0","published_date":"","news_description":"South Africa's (SA) ActionSA Member of Parliament, Dereleen James, has told the National Assembly that the only viable solution to SA\u2019s overcrowded correctional centres is the deportation of foreign nationals serving prison sentences.\u00a0","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30088,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30086\/revisions\/30088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}